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48
PUBLIC HEALTH (SHELLFISH) REGULATIONS, 1915.
In May, a representation from the Borough Council of Southend-on-Sea, dated
21st March, 1916, was received by your Medical Officer through the Medical Officer of
Health, Southend, together with information, dated 13th April, from that Medical
Officer, was laid before your Worshipful Committee.
The representation called attention to the practice of collecting for sale direct to
the public, shellfish from the foreshore in the vicinity of the Chapman Head, which
the Southend Borough Council was advised is an undesirable ground for the collection
of shellfish for human consumption without prior purification.
The information showed that cases of Enteric Fever in the Borough of Southend
had been traced to shellfish collected at various points along the foreshore on the
Northern side of the Thames Estuary from Canvey Island to Shoeburyness.
The information also showed the diminution in Enteric Fever incidence in the
Borough of Southend, which from time to time had followed measures taken in
connection with shellfish.
The most successful of these measures were (1) the steaming of cockles before sale
which reduced the yearly average of the Enteric Fever incidence from 65 cases in the
four years 1900 to 1903, to 16 in the four succeeding years, and (2) the leasing of the
fishery rights for that part of the foreshore in possession of the Borough, which further
reduced the average case incidence in the Borough to 4 per annum in the four years
which succeeded this measure. The terms of the lease prevented the public collecting
the contaminated shellfish.
These measures in their execution conveyed public warning, and their good results
must have extended far beyond the Borough limits.
In the most recent lease of the Corporation foreshore, the register showing
how and where the shellfish are dealt with by the lessee is specifically open to the
Officers of the Port of London Sanitary Authority for inspection ; and the terms of
the lease should adequately safeguard the public as regards shellfish taken for sale from
their portion of the foreshore.
To the West of the Southend Corporation foreshore lies the area on which
representation was made, and to the East an area dealt with in the information.
The former consists of public layings for the most part, and the latter up to the
Western Shoeburyness parish boundary of a private laying, and, eastward of this
Shoeburyness boundary, of public and private layings of vague definition.
The term " laying " does not necessarily imply deposition of shellfish by the hand
of man, but includes any place where shellfish are taken, i.e., natural beds of shellfish.
Such natural beds constitute the layings under consideration.
Your Medical Officer inspected the whole foreshore, and from the topographical
and epidemiological consideration recommended that orders should be made and
undertakings required for the public and private layings respectively, which lie between
Canvey Island on the West and the limits of the Port jurisdiction on the East.