(e) Domiciliary Visiting and Inspections.
102. The health officers and sanitary inspectors undertake the duties of house-to-house inspection. Unfortunately the sanitary inspectors were not under the direct control of the health officers in 1938, but took their orders in the main from the Chairman of the Urban Council of Hong Kong who is head of the Sanitary Department.
103. It is very doubtful whether it is desirable for this body (one of whose main functions is scavenging and street cleansing) to exercise control over the activities of the sanitary inspectorate and those who should form an integral part of the health officers' staff. There is every reason to hope that, with the appointment of a deputy director of health services, there will be a reorganisation of the inspectorate on more up-to-date and effective lines. The present cumbrous and out-moded system very definitely militates against the efficient performance of the duties of the health officers.
104. In the Urban Council Area of Hong Kong and Kowloon there are approximately 23,472 Chinese-type houses, most of them having three storeys. 203,372 floors were cleaned with kerosene oil emulsion during the year. Each of the sanitary inspectors who undertakes domiciliary visiting is, in addition to this duty, responsible for supervising a district containing anything up to 50,000 inhabitants and it can, therefore, be readily appreciated that domiciliary visiting is hardly more than cursory.
105. During epidemics many cases of dangerous disease are "missed", and many fatal cases come to the public mortuaries after being dumped in the streets. This fact alone is enough to demonstrate the inadequacy and inefficiency of the prevailing system.
(f) Offensive trades.
106. During the year under review, 191 premises were licensed for offensive trades in Kowloon and Hong Kong. The different trades were as follows:-
Bone boiling and storing 5 Chromium plating 27 Cleaning and storing of shark's fins 40 Fat boiling and soap making 14 Feather drying, cleaning, sorting 1 Gut scraping 6 Hair drying, cleaning, sorting 2 Lard boiling 34 Manganese crushing and battery manufacture 1 Packing of skins and hides 23 Pig roasting 10 Rag sorting and picking 2 Resin boiling 6 Tanneries 20107. These trades are, for the most part confined to areas set aside by the Urban Council for the purpose. The two most dangerous of these trades are battery manufacture and feather cleaning. The primitive methods employed in the manufacture of batteries are only too likely to give rise to cases of manganese poisoning, and the absence of anti-dust measures in the feather cleaning rooms acts as a potential source of pneumoconiosis. Attempts to make the employees wear masks have failed, and it seems that the problem can only be solved by the introduction of legislation to enforce mechanical cleaning.