[Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, Edinburgh City.

  • Edinburgh (Scotland). City Council.
Date:
1948
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

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

    154/274 (page 146)
    In several cases the employees expressed satisfaction and stated that flies were rarely seen in places where previously they had been numerous. The treatment of manure heaps and surrounding grass areas may not have shown such good results, as the residual effects of the insecticide were considerably dissipated by rain. Nevertheless, the results were encouraging, and careful inspection showed that the number of flies in these areas could not be considered excessive. Similar anti-fly campaigns are to be made a regular feature in the Department’s work. SMOKE ABATEMENT. Smoke emission observations of factory and other chimneys were continued throughout the year. At the present time, when progress in this particular aspect of the Department’s work is governed and somewhat retarded by the inability of industrialists to obtain the better types of fuel, any abatement of atmospheric pollution is appreciated. One notable case is worthy of special mention, because of the prominent central site occupied by the premises. The steam-raising plant consists of two Cornish boilers which were formerly hand-fired with solid fuel, and despite every care and attention on the part of the engineers, emissions of smoke of a more or less dense nature were common. The attention of the owners of the business was called to this nuisance and the existing boiler plant was altered to allow for the introduction of gaseous fuel, with the result that there is a complete elimination of smoke. Improvements are also contemplated, principally by means of the introduction of mechanical stokers to steam-raising plants, in other business premises in the City. Deposit Gauges. Investigation of atmospheric pollution is undertaken in co-operation with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. For this purpose four deposit gauges are stationed as follows :— 1 at Seafield. 1 at Astley Ainslie Institute. 1 at Public Health Chambers. 1 at Glen corse. From the reports submitted by the City Analyst, the monthly records of total solids, together with the rainfall, are shown in Appendix 5. Educational Measures. Lectures on the domestic and industrial aspects of the smoke problem were given by the Smoke Abatement Inspector to various interested Associations. The series of lectures held in the Heriot-Watt College under the auspices of the Ministry of Fuel and Power were again well attended by boiler attendants and engineers. Instruction was given in the principles of combustion and proper methods of stoking in order to prevent the formation and emission of dense smoke from chimneys.