HANDLING WASTE PRfWDHTCIK

Otago Witness, Issue 2810, 22 January 1908, Page 28

HANDLING WASTE PRfWDHTCIK

l^^A^GTERbxjS FRACTBCK3. Oitr Ows Correspondent.* - AUCKLAND, January 17. -• The*' -plossible danger to puJb^.c health' • through the handling; of, waste products was brought under the notice of the City Counc'ir last evening by a letter 'from, the District, Health Officer (Dr J. S. Purdy}. He enclosed a memorandum on the subject from, the inspector of factories' (Mb ' James Shannaghany, and also a ceporfc furnished by -Mr Grieve, inspector to the Public /Health Department. _ Dr. PurSy ■ attain, urged upon . the ~ cbuncir the &dyJ6- > ableness of installing a steam disinfecting plant for the city and port." In the meantime he ,hoped that the- council would SB© that some supervision was. .exercised .o-flfer th& premises concerning which the report had been made. Mr Shannaghan,' in his letter to Dr Purdy, called, attention to certain premises in which all kinds of rubbish were handled. • The stuff handled, he eaid, was neves very clean, and was sometimes offensive. He was not aware that there was any cheek, as to where the material oamo" from, and it might possibly expoee the workers bo" danger of infection by diseaseSir Grieve, in his report, referred -to 'the fact thai ffirls were employed picking raga in the factory in question on thei occasion of his visit in company with Mtf Haynes' (inspector to the City Council). The business had' quite outgrown' tWa> dimensions" of the shed, the amount oi clear floor .space being very limited . indeed. Three girls who were tnpking nfgst were crowded into a kind of\toft, was already almost full of bales jand bags of scrap „ cloth, etc JEIe ; .was surprised -to hear, that the firm "were in -the, habit o£buyinjf waste material, from .those, in! charge of the .destructor at a fate thaft ran into hundreds of pounds & year. " I know foi; a fact," he continued, " that infected beddinsr and - elothincf is ■ often, .sent , to the destructor, and although thara no proof that -in any .particular instance any of itK has escaped destruction, at the same* time I cannot see how those ur cherfre can discriminate between «tuff which '■•is ■ harmless and that which- is infected. If a householder sells-anv infected article is liable under *he-c>?ttblio>'Seaitlr-r&efc; yefr« .jt seems worobabte- tha% 'fh&- "employees of the City Council are- doing- ao.- 'Again, M it fair that local Bodies are charged by weisrht .for the destruction of ' refuse, ■ if 1 a' portion of it js picked out after being weighed and sold? The only fair and safe way (a& things are at present) is to born everything as received, and as money coola be made out of the nirMncrs it' seems" B. pity to have to do that." TT e the opinion that a eteam dismfector was what was required, and that th« factory in crueßtion was not a fit nlace for girls to be employed in. The cifcv engineer, in ai memorandum, stated that he had given thet chief sanitary insoector instructions So undertake an independent supervision of tGe handline and disnosal of waste nroducts. It was decided to reply to the com-« munications in accordance with the city engineer's Tenor t.