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7.
COASTING VESSELS.
Your Medical Officer thinks it necessary to draw attention
to a certain deterioration in the cleanliness and the living conditions
generally in coasting vessels. An appreciable number are
found on inspection to be infested with rats and mice and also with
cockroaches.
No doubt these conditions are due in large measure to the
very high pressure under which the coastal trade is working at
present. The stay of these ships in port has been reduced to the
minimum necessary to discharge and re-load cargo and it is seldom
that the ships are empty for more than a few hours.
Furthermore, the crews are working under difficult conditions
and have little time to spare for cleaning up their quarters.
On the other hand, everything possible is being done by
the owners to secure an improvement of sanitation and living conditions
in these vessels and your Medical Officer wishes to express
his appreciation of their endeavour to collaborate and to carry out
his recommendations whenever time and circumstances permit.
One measure would go some way to secure improvement.
Coasting vessels are exempt from the obligation laid down in the
International Sanitary Convention, 1926, (Article 28), to undergo a
periodic inspection for the presence of rodents and to carry a
Certificate declaring that the ship, after inspection, has been
found to be free from rodents or is free from rodents following
fumigation.
This obligation imposed on foreign-going vessels could
usefully be extended to all vessels, whether British or foreign,
engaged in the coastal trade in these Islands.
FOOD INSPECTION.
The inspection of foodstuffs under the Public Health
(Imported Pood) Regulations. 1937, and the Public Health
(Preservatives, &c. in Pood) Regulations, 1925-1927, resulted in
the seizure and destruction of 1,820 tons of foodstuffs.
The policy that has been adopted during the war years,
namely, the conservation of food supplies, has resulted in the
saving of large quantities of foodstuffs which, by careful sorting
and by reconditioning, have been rendered, without appreciable
deterioration of quality, perfectly fit for human consumption.
Large quantities of foodstuffs which in peace time would have been
for the most part destroyed have been diverted to useful purposes
such as animal and poultry feeding.