[Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, Pudsey Borough.

  • Pudsey (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1948
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, Pudsey Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    35/56 (page 33)
    work in regard to milk production with a total inadequacy of legislation, such duties are to be transferred to a central govern¬ ment department. If local authorities could have possessed the same powers as the new Act now gives I am quite sure the picture would have been very much different. It will be noted that amongst the retailers of milk in the Borough are to be found 15 who are licensed to deal in T.T. milk. I was concerned during the year with the quality of some of the prepared foods sold in the Borough. Complaints were made to me regarding sausage meat and cooked meats, and as a result informal samples were taken by the Sanitary Inspectors. In other cases the Food and Drugs Authority were notified. I would recommend the Council to take appropriate action to become the Food and Drugs Authority for the area. At the present time the Sanitary Inspectors are appointed Food and Drugs Officers by the West Riding County Council for the purpose of milk sampling, but not for any other purpose. I am of opinion that it would be far more beneficial to the town to have a sampling officer at hand locally. The intimate knowledge obtained by the Sanitary Inspectors in their districts fits them well to undertake the sampling of food and drugs in those areas. It must be under¬ stood that a Sanitary Inspector is, by virtue of his profession, a sampling officer for the purposes of this Act, but my contention is that this authority should not have to bear the cost of sampling and proceedings and at the same time be levied with the cost of Foods and Drugs administration by the County Council. A large amount of food was again condemned and destroyed by the department during the year. In this connection I would like to report the difficulty of destroying adequately such foodstuffs owing to the absence of an incinerator in the Borough, Atmospheric Pollution. The position regarding pollution of the atmosphere by smoke and soot is very disturbing, particularly in view of the work done by the National Societies, and the years of effort by local authorities and their staffs to educate factory managements in smoke abatement measures. In fact the smoke problem in the Borough appears to be growing in magnitude ; one cannot help but have sympathy with factory managements to-day inasmuch as they have to operate their boilers under great difficulties, particularly in the use of inferior fuel. This difficulty in itself is not, in my opinion, responsible for the excessive pollution of the atmosphere which is taking place, but it would appear that in the eyes of the lay-public increased production must be accompanied by increased production of smoke, whereas in fact increased smoke production means inefficiency in boiler plant. It is obvious that if fuel is correctly burnt the temperature in the furnace will be such as to consume all gases so a's to use them for heating purposes, with the consequent absence of smoke. The Ministry of Fuel and Power have sponsored courses of instruction for management and staff in boilerhouse practice in this area, and it is hoped that their interest in the subject, which is mainly economical, will have the result of improving the general position. Although it can be truly stated that factory chimneys are responsible for the major portion of the smoke problem of the