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75
premises during the year. In many instances a full van-load of
material was collected for destruction. It is also the practice of
the Public Health Department to collect and destroy discarded
possessions left behind by persons removing from clearance areas to
Council houses or flats.
It must not be thought from the flgures given that Hackney has
an unusually large number of verminous houses. In fact, it is
probable that this Borough would compare favourably with most
London boroughs in this respect, and the large amount of work
carried out by the Public Health Department in connection with the
extermination of bugs arises from the fact that it is now generally
known to owners and occupiers that the Department is able and
willing to assist in this matter, and the presence of bugs is no longer
regarded as an evil to be accepted as inevitable in certain types of
property. In order to secure the co-operation of the public a leaflet
is issued describing the facilities offered by the Public Health
Department and a film 800 feet in length has been made by the
Department depicting slum clearance operations and the methods of
vermin disinfestation and this film is used at lectures.
(3) The methods employed for ensuring that the belongings of
tenants are free from vermin bejore removal to Council houses.
The contents of the homes of all persons removing from
clearance areas, and where necessary from other houses, to the
Council's dwellings are treated with hydrogen cyanide (Zyklon B)
in the brick-built fumigation chamber erected at the Disinfecting
Station in 1934. The internal measurements of the chamber are
26 feet long, 14 feet 3 inches high and 10 feet wide and the chamber
is, therefore, large enough to accommodate any type of furniture
van. Gas is introduced into the chamber without danger to the
operators who need not wear protective gas masks. Three vanloads,
comprising the possessions of three to nine families, can be
treated in the chamber daily and the process necessitates a delay in
the delivery of tenants' belongings of only three hours. The gas
chamber method of cyanide fumigation is quicker, cheaper, safer
and more effective than the alternative method of treating goods in
sealed furniture vans.
In transferring families from clearance areas to the Council's
flats the Housing Committee hire furniture vans and labour by the
day. The loaded vans are taken to the Disinfecting Station and
placed in the fumigation chamber, treated with hydrogen cyanide
freed from gas and, after thorough testing to ensure that no trace
of gas remains, the belongings are delivered to the new homes.
Soft goods and articles which might possibly retain gas are put into