[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Islington Borough].

  • Islington (London, England). Metropolitan Borough.
Date:
[1956?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Islington Borough]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    44/68 page 40
    40 Prevention of Damage by Pests Act, 1949. The following is a summary of the work carried out during the year. Notices Served : 12 Intimations and 8 Statutory Notices Type of Property Local Authority Premises Dwelling Houses Business Premises Total 1. Complaints received (including repeats) 19 1,458 187 1,664 2. Number of properties inspected as a result of: (a) Notification (initial complaint only) (a) 18 1,156 163 1,337 (b) Block Survey *(b) 140 352 49 531 3. Number of properties found to be infested by rats (including 5 by ship rats) 13 616 82 711 4. Number of properties found to be infested by mice 5 448 49 502 5. Re-visits by Investigators *733 3,373 109 4,215 6. Non-effective visits by Investigators 1 702 8 711 7. Number of infested properties treated (new jobs commenced) *542 1,064 96 1,702 8. Continuation or post-bait treatment *530 2,275 369 3,174 9. Visits by Operators *3,497 11,885 977 16,359 10. Still being baited at end of year — 25 7 32 11. Completed during the year *1,061 2,099 194 3,354 12. Number of Business Agreements dealt with : 98. 13. Members of the Rodent Staff assisted in the application of smoke tests in respect of 138 drainage tests carried out by Sanitary Inspectors. * Includes sewer maintenance treatments Nos. 21 and 22. NOTE :—For the purpose of completing Sections 2, 3, 4 and 7, each property is entered once only in respect of inspections, infestations and treatments. The duties required to secure that premises are rodent free calls for patience and persistence so that each case may be brought to a satisfactory conclusion. A number of cases of infestation arose due to unsealed disused drains each of which take a considerable time to trace. At one address which was seriously infested and which engaged the attention of this department over a long period it was finally discovered that there were two drainage systems to the premises, both of which were defective. Since the drains have been relaid there has been no re'infestation. In another case a very heavy rat infestation occurred which failed to respond to continuous baiting and poisoning. Drains were tested and found to be satisfactory. Eventually a disused drain was discovered leading into these particular premises ; this was sealed off and the nuisance was abated. The Sanitary Inspector and the Rodent Officer made joint quarterly inspections of four hospitals in the borough and the attention of the Hospital Management Committee was drawn to any matters requiring attention. Representatives of the Public Health Department attended four meetings of the Workable Area Committee during the year.
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