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62
DISINFECTION STATIONS.
I have on many occasions reported on the insufficient accommodation
afforded by the two stations for the careful and efficient disinfection
of all the articles needing such treatment. The stations are
placed one in the northern and the other in the southern portion of the
borough. Each is provided with one of Manlove and Alliot's WashingtonLyon
Apparatus which is the only equipment. There is no laundry or
means of washing stained clothing, nor is there any room attached in
which articles likely to be damaged by steam or hot air can be exposed
to the vapor of formalin or other similar disinfectant. The floor space of
the station, especially the one at Manor Place, is far too small under
ordinary conditions of working. There is no provision for the men
employed either for bathing or for the storing or changing of their
personal clothing when work is over, nor for the taking of meals. Further,
there is no accommodation for the disinfectors in regard to the same
matters. The consequence is that all the men, intimately concerned with
the disinfection of rooms and clothing, mix freely with the outside public
under conditions likely to propagate infectious disease. Beyond this the
clothing and bedding of our inhabitants is at times so damaged, by the
stains being fixed and which could have been removed by suitable
washing, that serious loss is sustained. The Public Health Committee has
had this matter of damage to clothing under its consideration, but I
hardly think it appreciates the extent to which the borough suffers.
Complaints are often received by me with a request for compensation,
but owing to the extreme poverty of many of the sufferers hardly a tithe
of them do otherwise than accept the situation as inevitable and the
natural accompaniment of an attack of infectious disease. The plea has
hitherto been that on the grounds of economy an extension of one of the
stations cannot be entertained. I believe the borough is losing much
more by the delay in bringing the means of disinfection up to a state of
efficiency.
DISINFECTION AFTER INFECTIOUS DISEASE.
The number of rooms disinfected during the year was 3,459, of which
872 were stripped; 3,238 rooms were disinfected, and 1,057 rooms were
stripped in the year 1906. Disinfection has been carried out periodically
in every instance where a case of Phthisis was notified.