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76
a room in the new flat, the window of which is left open, and the
door of the room is sealed until the next day. Beds and bedding
are collected separately in the Public Health Department's vans and
dealt with in the steam disinfecting apparatus.
The small number (7) of slight infestations of the Council's
flats erected since 1934, following the cyanide gas method of
disinfestation, indicates that this method is not only effective but
is of permanent value and results in considerable saving of expense,
trouble and inconvenience. There is no process to equal cyanide
disinfestation of furniture in a properly constructed chamber, but
the difficulty still remains as regards the disinfestation of dwellings
owing to the toxicity of cyanide gas. The successful use of the
cyanide gas chamber has led to the building of an additional chamber
of smaller dimensions (6 feet 8 inches long, 6 feet 4 inches high and
6 feet 10 inches wide) for use in dealing with small quantities of
furniture and other articles and in particular for dealing with
bedsteads which cannot be dealt with efficiently by other methods.
Enquiries are constantly being received from public health
officials and others interested in the question of vermin disinfestation
in this country and abroad as to the construction and method of
operating the Hackney cyanide gas chambers. Similar chambers
have, in fact, been erected in and outside London and other
authorities are considering a similar scheme. A description of the
chambers by the Chief Sanitary Inspector, Mr. W. Peverett, was
placed in detail in last year's report and those particulars and plans
are available for the information of any officers of public health
authorities who care to make application for them.
Cyanide disinfestation has been carried out at the request of the
Shoreditch and Bethnal Green Housing Associations in regard to
the possessions of families removing from those boroughs to houses
erected by the Associations in Hackney. The belongings of 12 such
families were dealt with in 1937.
In addition to the cyanide gas disinfestation of verminous
furniture and other household effects considerable quantities of
bedding and personal clothing are treated in the steam disinfector
at the Council's Disinfecting Station
The following table shows
the number of such articles treated at the Disinfecting Station in
each month of the year, together with the number of collections of
verminous or filthy goods for destruction to which reference is made
on page 74.