[Report 1972] / Medical Officer of Health, Woodhall Spa U.D.C.

  • Woodhall Spa (England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1972
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1972] / Medical Officer of Health, Woodhall Spa U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    4/14 (page 2)
    To The Chairman and Members of The Urban District Council of Woodhall Spa. Mr. Chairman, Mrs. Farmery and G-entlemen, I have the honour to present my annual report for 1972. This will be the last report which you will receive from a Medical Officer of Health, since the office, together with the Urban District Council is dissolved upon the reorganisation. The very large number of monthly reports you have received over the years recording no action needed by your Medical Officer must demonstrate that there is no longer any justification for a M.O.H. for such a small district and since for the greater part of two years you have been without an effective Public Health inspectorate, there is indeed little upon which I can comment. The scheme for a joint sewerage extension to bring in the Houghton Moor area of Horncastle Rural District has been finalized and work should now be starting. By the time it is complete, the Urban District will have ceased existence and the Works look as if they will become the property of the Regional Water Authority and the sewers that of the East Lindsey District, Nevertheless, the people of the area should enjoy some benefit from the abolition of cesspool smells from the Roughton Moor area and surcharging of the towns sewers. The complaint regarding a catering premises kitchen which I was asked to investigate over a year ago has borne fruit in the form of completely re-designing and rebuilding the kitchen area - a much more ambitious programme than could have been envisaged at the outset, though very slow to occur. The smell from the bait-breeding premises caused seme complaint during 1972 and all the efforts of the operators, the Rural District inspectorate and that of the County Council failed to evolve an adequate solution. During last winter, however, I was able by courtesy of Louth Rural District Council to see, at close quarters, a similar establishment which had been the cause of similar complaint for a long period but which had suddenly stopped offending upon the installation of high-intensity mercury vapour lamps. This is a technical matter since both the radiation from the lamps and the ozone produced can be a source of danger to the workers and both installation and maintenance must be skilled. The problem is two-fold - to produce an atmosphere tolerable to the workers and to prevent an odour intolerable to others. The possibility of passing the large volume of air needed to ventilate the factory through a furnace to destroy its organic components is impractical on grounds of cost - about £25. per hour. The alternative of odour masking has been disappointing so far, but I am impressed by the effects of ultra-violet light although it must be admitted that my visit was at a time of year when complaints are not received from Roughton.