[Report 1955] / Medical Officer of Health, Durham City.

  • Durham (England). City Council.
Date:
1955
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1955] / Medical Officer of Health, Durham City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    33/36 (page 31)
    FOOD AND DRUCiS ACT, 11)38-1950. \Tar Ending 31st December, 1955. The work under this Act is performed by an Inspector of the County Council and during the past year, the following samples were submitted by him to the Public Analyst for examination :— Tea ... Margarine Beef Sausage Lard Butter Icing Sugar ... Robinsons Patent Groats 2 Cooking Fat ... 1 Drinking Chocolate 1 Mineral Salts ... I Bemax Wheat ... 3 Ice Cream 1 Pasteurised Milk 1 (Informal). All 28 samples were reported genuine. 1 1 1 1 12 WATER SUPPLIES. The following information on water supplies is from a report kindly submitted by Mr. A. C. Wildsmith, Chief Engineer, Durham County Water Board :— The importance of the public water supply was brought home 'forcibly by the extreme shortage of water in the last few months of 1955, the extremely dry weather prevailing after July causing the Board to put into operation, in December, 1955, an emergency scheme of water supply from street taps. It was fortunate that reasonably substantial falls of rain on the gathering grounds made it possible to revert to normal supplies within a very short time after the introduction of this so-called “ rationing.” It is worthy of note that during the whole of the period of shortage, and during the operation of the Emergency Scheme, the bacteriological quality of the water was fully main- tained. The Board’s Chemist regularly checked samples from the whole area and no unsatisfactory results were obtained. During the past year over 1,300 bacteriological and chemical samples have been analysed at the Board’s laboratory and over 81 of the bacteriological samples have come within Class 1 of the Ministry of Health Classification for piped supplies. Still further improvements have been made in the filtration and treatment of the moorland supplies and the water is of excellent clarity.