of course, processed only in quite small proportions, of the order of 14 per cent. and 4 per cent., respectively, before reaching the household kitchen. The data, though somewhat incomplete, does allow a general conclusion to be drawn. Quite apart from the purely preparative treatment which practically all food receives, it appears that of the 85 per cent. of the nation’s food passing through the domestic kitchen, quite a third has previously been given some processing treatment, and, furthermore, the processing techniques there involved have usually been applied to factorysized batches under controlled conditions.
With the introduction in 1988 of a system of site‐based management in England and Wales, schools are now operating in a radically altered planning context in which responsibility for strategic planning has been delegated from local education authorities (LEAs) to individual schools. Although school development planning has been widely adopted by LEAs in the UK as a rational approach to site‐based planning, indicative research suggests that strategic planning in a sample of schools operating in the newly decentralized environment has been slower to develop in practice than originally anticipated. Evidence of a lack of a coherent planning process in schools casts doubt on their ability to operate successfully in the strategic vacuum likely to be created if the gradual demise of LEAs continues. Suggests that if schools are to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by site‐based management to plan and sustain their own long‐term improvement and development, a thorough review may be needed by central government of their existing laissez faire attitudes towards site‐based planning, if there is not to be considerable long‐term damage to the national education service as a whole.
ypmaN the last five years there has been an increasing number of reports of insects VY which have developed a tolerance towards one or other of the synthetic insecticides. Resistant strains of Musca domestica (L) have been reported in the south of England and when, during the late summer of 1953, reports were received that residents in the vicinity of a refuse tip at Thorpe, near Egham, Surrey, were unable to control large numbers of flies which were invading their premises, it appeared probable that another resistant strain had developed. These flies could not be controlled by &dquo; knock-down &dquo; fly sprays incorporating Pyrethrins and DDT, nor did DDT/BHC insect powders appear to be effective. ’
IT is doubtful if such a small section in any Act of Parliament has ever done so much -L to ease the burden of so many people as section 29 of Part III of the National Health Service Act, 1948, which permitted local health authorities to provide a domestic help service. As soon as schemes for the provision of a service were made known the requests for help mounted steadily. It is not without a certain amount of reluctance that the British people accept domestic workers not of their own choosing into their homes. That they do so and are prepared to pay according to their means for the assistance given may be taken as an indication that the need was genuine although inevitably there was abuse by the few. There were of course domestic help services in operation in some areas long before 1948, but they were services limited mostly to providing help for households while the mother was in bed following confinement. The extent of the need for other types of illness and especially for the chronically ill was certainly not fully realized. Figures indicating the number of cases to whom assistance has been given and the number of hours allocated have been kept in categories in the County of Essex since 1950 and are set out in Table I.
THIS is, indeed, an opportune meeting of the Royal Sanitary Institute. It could not 1 have been better timed, and I feel that on this occasion I should express my views, as Chairman of the Committee, on the Government announcement accepting the principles of our Report. That is, of course, a matter for great satisfaction. I believe that there will be almost universal acceptance of and support for the Government’s attitude. But what I believe is wanted above all is that legislation to combat smog should be in existence and in the first stage towards implementation before next winter. That may be secured only by rapid and intensive action. My Committee envisaged
IT was anticipated, not unreasonably, that by the time this paper was presented to this i meeting a new Food and Drugs Act would be on the Statute Book; more important still, that regulations made under this Act would be in the process of becoming operative. We are all familiar with the chequered character of the careers of both Bill and draft regulations, and the resultant delay. The opposition to the Bill seems to stem from the
lished theory as well as practice. The chemist, the biologist and the bacteriologist have all teamed up with the engineer to investigate every angle of approach to a problem which becomes more and more complex as the waste waters from trade premises increase in volume and variety, and only too often contain new properties which are inhibitory to purification processes. This difficulty is only partly due to the Public Health (Drainage of Trade Premises) Act, 1937, which causes greater numbers of trade premises to be drained direct to the public sewers. Scientific advances in very many directions have influenced, changed, or created manufacturing processes, so that the wastes from the manufacturers’ premises have correspondingly changed, and inevitably the aggregate result is a more complex raw sewage. Scientific development has thus bestowed benefits on industry, but in so doing has created a serious problem. Although these difficulties caused by complexity of trade wastes are increasing, sewage works plants can successfully deal with nearly all of them, but only because the plants are better understood, and more closely watched,
THE improved standard in the purity of public water supply, coupled with more 1 adequate resources, has contributed in no small way to the elimination of disease and the prospect of the longer life of to-day compared with 100 years ago. Looking back over the years it does not seem so long ago that a few buckets of water per day per household were all that were considered essential, but improved sanitation and hygienic conditions and the many personal water-using appliances have changed that aspect to such an extent that to-day water supply has become an increasingly essential factor in our ways of life and exerts a large influence upon industry and population trends. The history of the Hull undertaking, probably unique in its record and detail, although in this paper considerably condensed, will it is hoped be of general interest, showing as it does the importance of water supply in the growth of an industrial city, the foresight of the past and the effect of the later policy which failed to allow for the
Is the collection of kitchen waste and its concentration into pig and poultry food, as . operated by local authorities in various parts of the country, on its way out? It is certain that the national output has not been maintained since Government directions to local authorities were revoked, because some councils who operated schemes have taken the opportunity to close their plants and sell their machinery, equipment and stores. Those concerned with the organization and problems of kitchen waste schemes know only too well the difficulties that arise in trying to maintain a reasonably constant level of waste food intake, in finding suitable markets which will provide a regular outlet for a perishable article, selling at a price which will bear a fair comparison with other feeding meals, and operating without financial loss to the local authority. Nevertheless, is there any justification for closing down kitchen waste schemes simply because of adverse local circumstances? Moreover, have the nation’s circumstances changed so much that we can be indifferent on this question? Can we, as individuals, as citizens,
