View report page

WELFARE OF HANDICAPPED PERSONS OTHER THAN BLIND
The Welfare Department is also responsible for operating, under the National
Assistance Act, 1948,, schemes for the welfare of handicapped persons other than
blind These include the deaf and dumb hard of hearing and the generally
handicapped (cripples, etc.).
Services to the deaf and dumb and the hard of hearing are provided by
appropriate voluntary organisations, to whom the County Council makes grants in
aid
A Welfare Visitor for other persons who are substantially and permanently
handicapped is employed in the Borough and she works under the direction of the
Area Welfare Officer. She visits disabled persons in their own homes, the aim
being to assist them to obtain such facilities as may be beneficial to them and
available from statutory or voluntary sources, The help afforded from one source
or the other or sometimes from a combination of both may enable the person to
take part in social activities, to attend a handcraft class,, or, as may be
necessary to obtain suitable appliances, or certain alterations and adaptations
to houses (e, g, ramps for invalid chair cases, or handrails), or to take a needed
ho liday, Advice and guidance on personal problems is given and membership of
a voluntary organisation catering for the particular handicap may be facilitated.
Residents of the Borough needing the County Welfare Services referred to
should apply to the Area Welfare Officer, Mr. H. S. Wright at the Local County
Offices Great West Road, Brentford
ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION
The two stations set up for the measurement of smoke and sulphur dioxide
in the atmosphere by the volumetric method, continued to function throughout
the year.
Monthly reports of recordings and other particulars were submitted to the
Fuel Research Station of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research
for comparison with the rest of the country, and the Officers of the Fuel Research
Station were consulted at any time when special problems occurred concerning
the reading of results or breakdown of equipment Bulletins from the Department
of Scientific and Industrial Research were received regularly and studied in
the Public Health Department so that results could be compared with those in
other areas,
A brief summary of the year's recordings is to be found in Table XIII at
the end of the book, and in Graph 'C' which has been prepared from these figures.
As will be seen, for most of the year the Chiswick results both for smoke and
sulphur dioxide pollution appear slightly higher than those for Brentford Since
the station at Brentford is in a more highly industrialised section of the
Borough than the Chiswick station, these results seemed to indicate an extra
source of pollution might be looked for in Chiswick This might have been due
to the fact that as this station is nearer ground level there could be additional
pollution from the street during the periods of high wind and when passing
traffic stirred up street dust in dry weather, The Public Health Committee
agreed therefore, that a third station should be set up at second floor level
in the Council buildings, and this was done, Readings were only taken from the
month of August, and therefore figures for a complete year will not be available
for this Report, It may be menticned, however that the first readings from the
new station did not seem to justify the theory that street dust might be
-41-