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73
"Beds and bedding, etc., were collected in the Public
Health Departments' vans, disinfected by steam or means
other than cyanide gas at the Disinfecting Station and delivered
at the new homes the same day. The numbers of articles
treated by means other than cyanide gas were—beds 610,
other articles 4,379.
"Discarded and useless articles left at the vacated houses
were collected in the Public Health Department's vans and
destroyed in the incinerator at the Disinfecting Station. This
material included a large number of old beds and bedding;
altogether 82 van loads of material were collected for destruction.
From one two-roomed house alone three loads of rubbish
were removed, and it is interesting to note that no less than
eight van loads of rubbish were removed by the Public Health
Department from this house about 18 months ago.
''One hundred and fifty-six of the vacated houses were
fumigated with sulphur and nitre, or sprayed with disinfectant
fluid, and sealed with a view to destroying bugs and preventing
their distribution through the sale of old building material and
firewood.
"In order that the tenants might be assured that there
was no danger resulting from the treatment of their goods with
cyanide gas, a visit was paid to each flat on the evening of
their occupation.''
There is no obligation upon the sanitary authority to construct
a cyanide gas chamber for furniture disinfection or to provide any
facilities other than those already provided for many years past
for home disinfection by such materials as sulphur and vermicidal
sprays and the steam disinfection by the steam plant installed at
the Disinfecting Station for disinfection against infectious disease,
which can also be used for destruction of vermin in bedding and
similar articles.
As already stated, the duty of keeping premises free from
vermin rests with the owner or occupier. The owner may be a
private owner, housing association, county council or borough
council. In the case of the Borough Council the Housing Committee
has been entrusted with the management, and consequently
is entrusted with the duty of seeing that the premises are kept in
clean, habitable condition.
The Council erected a cyanide gas chamber at the Disinfecting
Station, and this expenditure the Council decided should be charged
to the Housing Fund, but the Minister of Health, in a letter of