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PREFACE
To the Chairman and Members of the
carshalton urban district council
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present my Annual Report on the health of the
district for the year 1961.
Statistically much the most important feature is the large reduction
in the mid-year estimate of population furnished by the Registrar-General
as a result of the census taken in April. Apart from its very adverse effect
on the finances of the district in the loss and repayment of grant, it has of
course a marked influence on the various statistical rates which are
calculated on it. Largely for this reason for example, the birth rate shows
a rise from 11.4 to 14.7 per thousand population. To arrive at the "comparable"
rates which are the figures for comparison with the national
statistics, the Registrar-General supplies annually "comparability factors"
by which the actual crude rates have to be multiplied. This is to make
allowance for the difference in the age and sex constitution of the local
population and that of England and Wales as a whole. The RegistrarGeneral
is evidently aware, as we have been aware for some time, that
the reduction in the total population is at the expense of the younger age
groups, in that, after many years without change, he has now increased
the comparability factor for the birth rate and decreased the factor for
the death rate.
The crude death rate still remains substantially less than the national
figure. Heart disease again heads the list of killing diseases and cancer
of the lungs again took a heavy toll, four times greater than it did 20
years ago. There is some significance for heavy smokers in the fact that
of the eight deaths which occurred from tuberculosis, seven were men
with an average age of 70 years.
1961 was another favourable year from the point of view of infectious
disease. We had the expected measles epidemic in the first half
of the year, but there were no deaths. There was no smallpox, no diphtheria,
no enteric fever, only two cases (one imported) of dysentery, whilst
the incidence of scarlet fever and whooping cough was again gratifyingly
low. None of these infections was fatal.
Sanitation and environmental hygiene received the same close
attention from the Public Health Inspectors to which we are accustomed
in spite of staff difficulties and the increased duties arising out of the
Clean Air Act. Food and food practices were subjected to the usual
thorough supervision and the satisfying results of sampling and testing
are very acceptable rewards for this unremitting task. All samples of milk
were satisfactory; all samples of ice cream were of the highest grade of
bacteriological purity and there were no cases of food poisoning. The
sewers showed no evidence of rat infestation and the Council's Cleansing
Station was not brought into use at any time during the year.
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