London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Hillingdon 1972
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hillingdon]
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The revised scheme also extended the period during which grants could be applied for and
claimed. Applicants can now apply up to the 31st December 1974 and providing sound proofing
works to which the application relates are completed before 1 st January 1976.
The increased grants appear to be attracting more applicants and last year's figure of 22 grants
is far exceeded this year.
Details of applications dealt with are as follows:
No. of applications received 140
No. of applications granted 140
No. of applications dealt with since the scheme started
1st January 1966 794
CONSUMER PROTECTION
Toys (Safety) Regulations 1967
These regulations prohibit the use of celluloid toys, other than ping-pong balls and impose
restrictions in relation to the lead, antimony, barium, cadmium and chromium content of paints used on
toys. Periodical visits are made to toy retailers within the Borough and suspect toys are purchased and
submitted to the Public Analyst for examination. Screening tests can also be carried out in the departmental
laboratory and while this only indicates the presence of lead in excess of 10,000 parts per
million, it is a most useful test as the majority of adverse reports received are in excess of this figure.
Forty-three toys were submitted to this screening test, 3 of which were found to be unsatisfactory.
Nineteen toys were submitted for analysis of which 6 were found to contain lead in excess of that permitted by the regulations. Details of these toys are given in the following table:
| Satisfactory Toys | Unsatisfactory Toys | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article | Country of Origin | Article | Country of Origin | Reason |
| Wooden pull along train | Foreign | Building bricks | China | 56,100 parts per million Pb |
| Musical pull along | Czecho | |||
| Xylophone | slovakia | Light magnetic | China | Yellow paint from lorry 107,200 parts per million Pb. |
| Arithmetic blocks | China | crane | ||
| Animal orchestra blocks | China | |||
| Piano book | Foreign | Yellow paint from metal bones 45,400 parts per million Pb | ||
| Rubber toy | Hong Kong | |||
| Windmill | Holland | |||
| Wood blocks | Czecho | |||
| slovakia | Zoo blocks | China | 9,100 parts per million Pb | |
| Wooden blocks | Foreign | |||
| HB 120 pencils | China | Drawing sets (2) | Foreign | Red pencil 25,280 parts per million Pb |
| Drawing set | Foreign | |||
| School coloured paper | England | |||
| Coloured pencils | Foreign | Red pencil 26,680 parts per million Pb | ||
| Paint brush | Japan | 119,400 parts per million Pb | ||
The building bricks, light magnetic crane and zoo blocks were examined at the request of
parents whose anxieties had been aroused by the publicity which had resulted from the department's
findings of lead in a toy sample taken in December. Only one of the articles was purchased within
the Borough. Extensive enquiries were carried out by both this department and the other local
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