A WAY PAST DANGER

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 99, 23 October 1924, Page 2

A WAY PAST DANGER

PROPER TREATMENT OF MILK

OPINION OF MEDICAL

WITNESSES.

Milk is probably responsible for more sickness and deaths than all other foods' combined, states the report of the Municipal Milk Department Special Inquiry Board. The reasons for this.are as follow:— (1) Milk is particularly prone to contamination at all stages from the producer to the consumer. It is the most difficult of all' foods to, obtain, handle, and transport in a' clean, fresh, and satisfactory condition. (2) Milk conveys a greater variety of infections than any other food. Furnishing, as it does, an ideal " medium-for the growth of diseasecausing germs, a slight initial" infection may produce most serious results. (3) Milk is the only article, of diet obtained from animal - sources which is universally consumed in its raw state. The_ principal diseases which may result, in man, from the use of contaminated milk are diphtheria, enteric fever, scarlet fever, septic sore throat, and that form of tuberculosis of the bovine type which manifests itself (in children particularly) in lesions' of the bones, joints, glands, etc. In addition, a considerable proportion of the diarrhoeal diseases of both adults and rfjMreu is due to the ingestion of stale, dirty, and bacteria-laden milk. The problem then arises as to how this very necessary article' of diet can be rendered safe for the consumer. The board finds that the only practical solution of this problem is a com. binatiou of inspection, pasteurisation, and delivery in sterile capped bottles. Inspectioa secures a cleaner tind bettef but, not necessarily a safe milk. Pasteurisation destroys the dangers inspection cannot see, and eliminates the risk of milk-borne infections, : Delivery in properly capped containers prevents contamination and fection after pasteurisation. - ' The council's scheme provides $ safe milk by— \ (a) Testing and grading of milk on arrival at depot; (b) Pasteurisation; .; ;, (c) Automatic bottling after pasteurisation; ' (d) Delivery to consumer in sterilecapped containers. .. ,'. The report then deals with the technical side of pasteurisation, in the course of Which discussion it states (referring to. the probable weakening oj the auto-scorbutic vitamin): — "This, the only possible objection to pasteurised milk, is of little, moment. Scurvy is effectively and simply prevented in the case of infante by the addition to the diet of the juice of fresh fruit, such as the orange, etc. There is no need, then, to be deterred from obtaining the_ general protection from infection which pasteurisation confers by the fear of producing this disease." THE MEDICAL EVIDENCE. The medical men who gave evidence before the board, continues the report," including representatives of the Wellington Division of the British Medical Association; of the Department of Health, and the Medical Superintendent of the Wellington' Hospital, 'were" unanimously of opinion that the pasteurisation of milk is in the best interests of public health, and that the temperature and time of pasteurisation adopted at the municipal milk station, viz:; 145 degrees F. for 30 minutes, were sufficient to eliminate all danger of milk-borne diseases. The Ministry of Health, England, the Australasian Public Health Association, and the Commission ~of Milk Standards of the New York Milk Committee have investigated the case for and against pasteurisation at great length, and all agree that it is a most important publia" measure, not the. least of its advantages being that it destroys all possibility of the conveyance of infectious disease by milk.