View report page

70
In addition to the cleansing of verminous rooms or premises by
owners and tenants after service of notice by the Sanitary
Inspectors, 1,238 rooms at 819 premises, where neither tenant nor
owner could be shown to be directly responsible, were cleansed of
vermin by the staff of the Public Health Department.
During the year 5,822 pints of insecticide and 640 hand sprayers
were supplied at cost price to owners and occupiers in order to assist
them in clearing their premises of vermin. The value of the
material sold was £323 7s. 6d.
Requests are frequently received in the Public Health Department
for the removal and destruction of the possessions of persons
who have died or been removed to residential institutions. The
assistance of the Department is also sought by persons wishing to
dispose of old bedding and furniture. These requests are acceded
to in order to prevent the distribution of goods which may be infected
or verminous.
No less than 335 van-loads of verminous or dirty material was
dealt with in this manner by the Public Health Department during
the year.
Destruction of Vermin by the Use of Cyanide Gas.—The furniture
belonging to 199 families was treated during 1935 in the cyanide
gas chamber erected at the Council's Disinfecting Station. One
hundred and sixty-six of these families were removed by the Council
during the period 8th July to 15th August from clearance areas to
the Council's flats.
The statutory duties of the Council as regards infectious disease
differ in many important respects from those which apply to infestation
by vermin.
As regards infectious disease the Public Health (London) Act
requires that every sanitary authority shall provide facilities for
disinfection and shall disinfect unless the master or owner of a
house carries out satisfactory disinfection, and the sanitary authority
shall provide temporary shelter for persons required to leave their
dwellings for the purpose of disinfection by the sanitary authority.
It is clearly the duty of the sanitary authority to proceed by
actually carrying out disinfection in certain cases.
To meet the difficulties experienced in the working
of previous statutes under which action was taken as regards
verminous conditions, the sections contained in Part III