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
Hounslow 1970
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hounslow]
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authority must be obtained. During the year 21
applications were received all of which were
approved although 6 required alteration to the
proposals.
During the year 179 complaints were
received from members of the public concerning
alleged smoke nuisances. All were fully
investigded but the majority referred to
neighbours bonfires.
Factories Act 1961.
Table 26 refers to the work of the department
carried out under the Factories Act. 1526
visits were paid to factory premises by the
public health inspectors and an additional 31
inspections were made to outworkers premises.
Offices Shops and Railway Premises Act, 1963.
The work under this legislation has proceeded
smoothly throughout the year and table 25
indicates the premises registered and inspected.
4069 visits were made to such premises by the
public health inspectors.
An analysis of the contraventions found is
| Cleanliness | 43 | Clothing accom | 6 |
| Overcrowding | 4 | modation Sitting facilities | 1 |
| Temperature | 47 | ||
| Venti lation | 29 | Seats (Sedentary workers) | 1 |
| Lighting | 23 | ||
| Sanitarv conveniences | 42 | Eating facilities | 3 |
| Floors, passages and stairs | 68 | ||
| Washing facilities | 41 | ||
| Supply of drinking | 4 | Fencing of exposed parts of machines | 9 |
| water | |||
| First aid | 54 | ||
| Other matters | 63 | ||
| Total | 438 |
The act also requires thit where an accident
to a person renders them unable to carry out
their duties for 3 days or more a report must
be submitted to the local authority. An analysis
of the accidents reported is
Machinery 10
Transport 7
Persons falling 30
Stepping on or striking against object 4
or person
Handling goods 14
Struck by falling objects 4
Fires and explosions 1
Use of hand tools 4
Others 2
76
Convictions were obtained in two cases
involving accidents. Both of these involved
bacon slicing machines.
Noise abatement
A total of 71 complaints were received concerning
55 noise sources. 18 were confirmed
as a nuisance after investigation. It is often
a time consuming occupation investigating
noise nuisances and solutions are generally
not easy to secure due to the complexity of
the machinery causing the noise.
The 18 confirmed cases related to
Noise nuisance from concrete breakers 3
Noise nuisance from industry 5
Noise nuisance from commerce 3
Others 7
Total 18
Of these. 15 were satisfactorily abated
but the remainder are still under active con
sideration. A total of 287 visits were made in
connection with these complaints.
Aircraft
During the year investigation into possible
pollution from aircraft trails was carried out.
To date no evidence of pollution has been
recorded. However this may be due to the
difficulty in obtaining accurde measurement
and investigations are continuing.
97