John Hinks and Marie‐Cécile Puybaraud
This paper reports some interim findings from organisational research into site fire safety which looks at the relevance of Contractor and Facilities Manager attitudes to safety…
Abstract
This paper reports some interim findings from organisational research into site fire safety which looks at the relevance of Contractor and Facilities Manager attitudes to safety as a component of the overall safety process. Presents a discussion on some of the practical problems associated with Facilities Managers managing the maintenance of fire safety during alterations works. Commences with an illustration of the Facilities Management context of site fire safety that draws upon a number of relevant fire events. It is intended to provoke a wider debate on the relevance of the Facilities Management role in protecting the business. A Project Safety Plan checklist is suggested for Facilities Managers, based on the authors’ review of existing construction site fire safety guidance and codes of practice. Explores a broadening of the Facilities Management role, as interface manager, which in most cases of refurbishment and alterations will constitute the common managerial link to the core business.
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Professor J. C. Drummond concluded his Cantor Lectures in January, 1938, by a quotation from Thomas Muffett's Healths Improvement, published in 1655: “Wherefore let us neither…
Abstract
Professor J. C. Drummond concluded his Cantor Lectures in January, 1938, by a quotation from Thomas Muffett's Healths Improvement, published in 1655: “Wherefore let us neither with the impudent, call diet a frivolous knowledge, or a curious science with the imprudent; but embrace it as the leader to perfit health (which as the wise man sayeth) is above gold, and a sound body above all riches.” Diet as the leader to perfect health: let us consider this for a moment in connection with the present subject. The object of the application of science to food is essentially the improvement of the diet of the people of the world. That, at any rate, is the long view of the question, though other motives may actuate certain groups at certain times. To‐day, for example, in this country, the main object of scientific work is to feed the population as efficiently as possible with the food available. Science in Germany for several years has been the handmaiden of the Nazi party and their four years' plan has been far more scientifically developed than any food plan in this country (so far as is at present obvious). It may be taken as certain that science applied to food has improved the diet of the people, although governments and industry have not necessarily always utilised the knowledge gained with this end in view, a position that obviously applies to all new discoveries in science. Scientists engaged in studies concerning food have the development of the knowledge of food chemistry either directly or indirectly as their main object; the majority are not concerned with the application of the results of this knowledge. Before dealing in detail with a few of the particular aspects of the application of chemistry to food, its production, its treatment, its storage and its service, I would briefly summarise the activities of the scientist as follows. He seeks to find the reason for the rule‐of‐thumb methods of the farmer, the stock‐breeder, the baker, the brewer, the physician, the requirements of the consumer himself, and, having found the explanation, he seeks to remove the unknowns, to standardise procedure, and to improve the process. This, I think, sums up the work of the scientist, and in doing this his studies lead him into every phase of the problems of the feeding of the people. Initially the chemist devoted his particular attention to the purity of foods. He did not know what “purity” entailed, neither do we know to‐day; like all knowledge, the science of food is an ever‐widening circle. The theory of “calorie” feeding has given place to the “vitamin” hypothesis, the limitations of which are now being more and more realised; tomorrow or next year a new concept of food and diets will be developed. The studies in the “purity” of food undertaken by the predecessors of the present members of the “Society of Public Analysts and other Analytical Chemists” were of fundamental importance. The objects of that Society, founded in 1874, are not without significance. Broadly they may be stated as follows: The study of analytical chemistry and of questions relating to the adulteration of articles of food, and the promotion of the efficiency and proper administration of the laws relating to the repression of adulteration. For the moment I wish to stress just one of these objects, namely, the study of analytical chemistry. Without reliable methods of analysis, studies in the composition of food are useless; the importance of a large proportion of the work published to‐day has to be discounted because of failure to appreciate the importance of reliable methods of analysis. It is only by the light of careful analysis that the picture of the composition of a food can be thrown on to a screen and examined. Appreciation of the composition of the food is the key which will open the door to a knowledge of its reactions, not only in its production, but also in its digestion by the human being. Without the work of the analysts, the research worker is unable to appreciate the influence of the facts he may discover. In this country the field of scientific investigation is covered by a number of organisations, Government‐controlled, partially Government‐controlled and private (the private consisting of academic workers in universities and colleges and the laboratories of the large commercial firms concerned with food production). Problems of the production of basic foods, of manufacture, of cooking, of storage and preservation and of distribution are all investigated. The science of agriculture is very modern, and it is only in comparatively recent years that chemistry, as such, has been seriously applied to this branch of practical science. In this country, the Rothamsted Experimental Station at Harpenden, founded in 1843, has been foremost in trying to collate scientific data with details of farming practice. Other important research stations, such as the Long Ashton Research Station, the Chipping Campden Station, the Rowett Institute, the National Institute for Research in Dairying, are all products of the present century. These bodies are essentially concerned with the production of the basic materials, fruit, cereals, meat, etc., for the food manufacturer, although this limitation of activity is not applicable everywhere; for example, Long Ashton devotes particular attention to the cider industry, Chipping Campden to canning, and Reading to cheese and other milk products. The next stage, food manufacture in all its phases, is in this country covered by the Food Investigation Board of the D.S.I.R. and by a number of Research Associations which are jointly supported by the Government and by member firms. But by far the greater proportion of scientific work on food manufacture is carried out in the laboratories of the great food firms. The Food Group of the Society of Chemical Industry has been active in arranging meetings concerned with the chemistry of food and has helped considerably to foster free discussion. In problems of distribution the food scientist has collaborated with the Royal Sanitary Institute and the Association of Medical Officers of Health. This collaboration has been of the greatest use, because it is of little worth for the food manufacturer to produce wholesome food if in its distribution the shopkeeper does not take the necessary precautions to see that the food is handed to the purchaser in as good a condition as the precautions taken in its production warrant. Dr. Andrew Borde, the seventeenth‐century physician, wrote in his Breviary of Dyet—“A good cook is half a physician for the chief physic dotli come from the kitchen, wherefore the physician and the cook must consult together.” A striking commentary on this thought has lately appeared in the preface to a book by McCance and Widdowson, published under the regis of the Medical Research Council: “The nutritional dietetic treatment of disease, as well as research into problems of human nutrition, demand an exact knowledge of the chemical composition of food.”
Many of the difficulties that have been experienced by Health Authorities in this country in the examination of imported butcher's “offal”—using the term “offal” in its trade…
Abstract
Many of the difficulties that have been experienced by Health Authorities in this country in the examination of imported butcher's “offal”—using the term “offal” in its trade sense—would seem to have been due to injudicious methods of packing on the other side. The organs that constitute “offal”—livers, plucks, kidneys, sweetbreads, and so forth—have hitherto been closely packed into a bag, box, or crate, and the whole mass then frozen hard. Hence on arrival at the port of inspection the separate examination of these organs for possible disease conditions was rendered a matter of extreme difficulty. The exporters have now, it appears, almost all arranged for the separate freezing of the larger organs before packing, and in the case of smaller organs, such as kidneys and sweetbreads, some packers now make use of shallow boxes.
The recent history and present state of the canning industry in the United States make anything but cheerful reading. If growers and producers can derive any satisfaction by…
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The recent history and present state of the canning industry in the United States make anything but cheerful reading. If growers and producers can derive any satisfaction by reflecting that all the other great industries are in much the same state of suspended animation, with no immediate prospect of “coming to,” they are certainly welcome to it, as under present conditions it is about the only satisfaction they will get, for the problems facing the trade and associated industries are as urgent as they seem insoluble. Prices of agricultural products have suffered an all‐round and very serious decline, and all exports are down. Packing‐house products have lessened by about one‐third in value and about one‐half in quantity when compared with those of 1930. The 1932 Year Book of Agriculture states that the exports of canned vegetables have declined by 33 per cent. in quantity and in value. The causes hardly need restating. Expansion as a result of war conditions and those immediately succeeding the war, and then restricted buying power in the home and foreign markets, has resulted in a futile attempt to market about twice as much as people were able to buy. A cursory inspection of the official figures relating to production in field and orchard, output in the factory, and export oversea, tell the tale with the dreadful eloquence of figures. The industry is fiscally well protected. The Tariff Act of 1930 shows that there is a duty on “ meat—prepared or preserved ” of six cents per lb., but not less than 20 per cent. ad valorem, unless it is otherwise specially provided for (paragraph 706). Fish prepared or preserved in any manner in oil or in oil and other substances 30 per cent. ad valorem (paragraph 718a), or prepared or preserved in any manner (except as in para. 718a) when packed in airtight containers weighing with their contents not more than 15 lbs. each, 25 per cent. ad valorem, and (paragraph 721c) fish sauce and fish paste 30 per cent. ad valorem. Apricots, berries, plums, peaches, pears, other fruits and all jellies, jams, marmalades and fruit butters, fruit pastes and fruit pulps have (paragraphs 735, 736, 745, 748, 749, 751, 752 and 775) a duty levied on them of 35 per cent. ad valorem. Apples—and the United States is by far the largest exporter of apples in the world—when dried, desiccated, or evaporated are subject to a duty of two cents per lb., and if otherwise prepared or preserved, and not specially provided for, 2½ cents per lb. Most assuredly all would be well with the industry if a tariff wall could do it. The home market is immense, and all fruits, temperate, tropical or semi‐tropical varieties, can be grown in the United States or its dependencies, and many of the fruits cannot be grown at all in countries that otherwise might be their competitors, or if grown are grown at disadvantages arising from either climate or limitation of area, late development of the industry, distance from the chief markets, insufficient means of transport, or want of development in technique, skill or knowledge. It has been said that the United States' packers spend twenty millions of money a year in advertising, and they make use, as is well known, of every device that modern science combined with the skill of specialists in this respect places at their disposal. It seems that for the past ten or fifteen years a growing competition has existed between canned and fresh fruits, or, to put it a little more accurately, between canners of fruit and growers of fruit. This would to some extent explain how it has come about that the powers of advertisement have been so strongly appealed to, as the figures just quoted show. The “ prejudice,” to use the official word, in favour of raw as opposed to canned fruit has by this means been partly overcome. We may remark in passing that the word “ prejudice ” is here not very happily chosen, as it seems to imply an unreasonable dislike on the part of the consumer. The preference, however, for the raw fruits of the earth is as old as the human race itself. No matter how skilfully canning may be carried out—and it is stated that no case of botulism due to commercially‐packed fruit has been encountered by the health authorities for the past two years—man, woman and especially the child will always in the future as in the past prefer freshly‐picked fruit to canned fruit, other things being equal. Good though it may be, canned fruit suffers from a deficiency of Vitamin C, and for that reason it can only be regarded as a substitute for the fresh stuff when this is not obtainable. No amount of propaganda will alter this. Not only, however, is there competition between the sellers of raw and the sellers of canned fruit, but there is competition between the canners themselves, and sharp competition may very easily in the long run lead to inferiority of product. Thus in an effort to stop “ some of the trade abuses which have grown up,” we are told that several trade organisations have been established, each one handling one particular product and to thereby control the orderly marketing of some lines of canned food. What exact form the implied disorderly marketing took we are not told, but we do know that some packers were marketing stuff which though not in conflict with the terms of the Food and Drugs Act was still of a quality distinctly inferior to the products which were being marketed by their competitors who paid more regard to the spirit of the law. A decided tendency was thereby created to lower the general standard of excellence of canned food products and thus injuriously to affect, if not to nullify, the good name of American canned foods. It is of little use to stand, so to speak, in the markets of the world and shout to gods and men to acknowledge the superior quality of your goods when it is only a question of time for the consumers to find out that they are not that which they are said to be. The man at home or abroad very naturally will not pay top prices for a tin of scraps or second‐rate stuff if he can help it. A compromise was then brought about to which exception might conceivably be taken on theoretical as well as on practical grounds by those whom we may call food purists, but the spirit of compromise has often been the saviour of Anglo‐Saxon civilisation and vested interests. It was so in this case. The Mc‐Nary Mapes Amendment to the Food and Drugs Act was at the instance of the more reputable packing houses applied to the trade of canned fruits and vege tables. By the terms of this amendment sub‐standard material may be marketed, but it must be clearly labelled as such in order that the consumer may at least receive a warning as to the real nature of the stuff he is buying. “ Below United Stales standard. Low quality, but not illegal.” Caveat emptor ! At first the canned fruit trade had not been affected by this amendment, which applied to other kinds of canned foods, but in July of 1931 the canning industry was given an official grading service under the Federal Government, the Department of Agriculture being made responsible for its administration. Grading offices are now being established in various parts of the States. A canner may on application to the Secretary of Agriculture submit samples either drawn by himself, or by an officer of the Department, or by an official sampler. The Department will then, after examination, issue a certificate of grade. This certificate has the important property of “ being admissible in all Courts of the United States as primâ facie evidence of the truth of the statements contained therein.” It is hardly necessary to point out how useful such a document proves in the case of legal actions, or to the wholesale buyer or agent. The canners, buyers and warehousemen, we are told, support the idea enthusiastically, and it seems that it is only a question of time before all canned fruits and vegetables will be officially standarised and graded. One result of the amendment is that before a grade certificate is issued the contents of the tin must be proved to be tender and well cooked. This in addition to quality in other respects and to fill of can. The apparatus used to determine this is essentially a mercury‐loaded steal plunger of given diameter working in a vertical collar. The point of the plunger is brought into contact with a specimen of the fruit to be tested. The plunger is loaded. The fruit being at length penetrated by the plunger. The combined weight of plunger, flask and mercury needed to bring this about being a measure of the tenderness of the fruit.
In his letter which appeared in the April number of this Journal, Mr. Edward Hinks, B.Sc., F.I.C., criticises our remarks on the jam standards set up by the Food Manufacturers…
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In his letter which appeared in the April number of this Journal, Mr. Edward Hinks, B.Sc., F.I.C., criticises our remarks on the jam standards set up by the Food Manufacturers Federation in conjunction with the Society of Public Analysts and Other Analytical Chemists, and the tone of his letter seems to indicate that he has not appreciated the position we take with regard to standards, a position which is consistent with the policy we have always followed, namely, to deprecate the making of a standard which lowers or tends to lower the quality of any product, and especially to deprecate it when the label does not adequately disclose any additions which have been made to the article in question. Whatever Dr. Johnson may have thought about jam in 1755, his definition undoubtedly agrees with what the British public considers jam should be to‐day, and that is, that it should be made from the fruit from which the jam derives its name and sugar—and nothing else.— It is hardly necessary to add that beet sugar—sucrose derived from beet, could be used as well as cane sugar —sucrose derived from cane.—Any extraneous addition should be properly described on the label. With regard to the standards which have been put forward by the Jam Section of the Food Manufacturers Federation in consort with the Society of Public Analysts and Other Analytical Chemists, we certainly take exception to the proportion of fruit permitted, which in many cases is so low, that pectin, derived from apple or some other source, has to be added to make a jam of saleable consistency. This addition means a shorter boil and a lower fruit content, a distinct gain to the manufacturer in the cheapening of the production of his article. How it can be contended that the public will get a good article if the manufacturers make jam according to these standards we cannot understand. In our opinion the public will get a poor jam, and may and probably will, in fact purchase a product containing added fruit juices, citric and tartaric acids and foreign colouring matter, and further they will have no opportunity of learning that these additions have been made, because no declaration need be made on the label. On the contrary such jam may be labelled “Full Fruit Standard.” Why no disclosure is to be made of such additions to First Quality Jam while the disclosure of the presence of added fruit juice is insisted on in Second Quality Jam—which doubtless no manufacturer will be too anxious to make —is difficult to understand. It appears to us that the Federation has had its own way too much in the fixing of these standards and that in its anxiety to reach agreement the Society of Public Analysts and Other Analytical Chemists, or its representative committee has allowed itself to be led much too easily. Again the country of origin of the fruit may perhaps not be regarded as relevant but what an excellent thing it would have been to have insisted that first quality jam should be made from home‐grown fruit. It is true that analysis cannot prove the country of origin of the fruit any more than, with our present knowledge, it can show that any jam contains for instance 42 per cent. of a particular fruit, but on the other hand there are methods of ascertaining whether imported fruit is used in a jam factory. As to the spirit in which we approach this matter we have felt it our duty to criticise, somewhat severely, standards which as it seems to us, give to a certain class of manufacturer permission to do the very thing he wants to do in the way of making extraneous additions to jams without imposing the necessity of declaration on the label. Such standards accordingly afford practically no protection to the unfortunate public, but tend ultimately to lower the general quality of the jam made in this country.
A discussion “ On the Neglect of Science in Commerce and Industry ” seems to involve the assumption that this neglect is general if not total. As this would be an exaggeration, I…
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A discussion “ On the Neglect of Science in Commerce and Industry ” seems to involve the assumption that this neglect is general if not total. As this would be an exaggeration, I prefer to speak of the inadequate appreciation of science in the British commercial and industrial world. During the last thirty years immense efforts have been made to provide instruction in physical science for all classes in the community, and with some success. Every British university is provided with laboratories and gives degrees in science; the number of colleges and technical schools has increased enormously, and the quality of the teaching provided has greatly improved, while there are but few secondary schools which are not furnished with good laboratories in which physical science is taught up to a comparatively advanced stage. Out of these universities, colleges, and schools proceed annually many hundreds of young people with a tincture of scientific knowledge, some of them possessing even a certain amount of practical skill and experience. I do not refer to engineers whose training and professional qualifications require separate discussion.