[Report 1950-1951] / School Medical Officer of Health, Hertfordshire County Council.

  • Hertfordshire (England). County Council. n 50062101.
Date:
1951
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1950-1951] / School Medical Officer of Health, Hertfordshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    During the year I have attended a number of parent-teacher meetings in the evenings, giving a short talk and then answering questions. I find many parents most interested in the work of the School Medical Officer, and anxious for information on various aspects of child health. The teachers tell me they find these meetings well worth while, and parents frequently follow up the meetings by applying for help and advice.” Thus, although it is fashionable to decry the modern parent and to lament parent craft as a dying art, one is met here by evidence that parents are, on the whole, keenly interested in their children, and are facing up to their responsi- bilities. Unfortunately, anxious concern for the health of the child is some- times matched with an apparent lack of the firm hand in the home. The reports of school medical officers year by year have stressed how large is the number of children who can be recognized at school as suffering from the effects of insufficient sleep. This year proves no exception to the rule. Dr. Moynihan (Letchworth) has stated “ Shortage of sleep is still apparent amongst the school population. The children look permanently tired and are drowsy in class. After ques- tioning a number of these children it seems that television has aggravated the difficulty of getting them early to bed. When there is a set in the house there is a programme to watch every night instead of them staying up only two or three nights a week to visit the cinema.” Dr. Munro (Hitchin) has reported in a similar strain :— Television—this is a word creeping more and more into inspections. Some children * look in ’ every night, others only at week-ends. The white drawn faces and tired eyes still do not persuade parents to use their authority. In one Infants’ School I visit it is a regular practice of a number of children to take a short ' nap ’ during lessons on a Monday morning, much to the teachers’ annoyance.” It seems therefore that television is replacing the cinema as the whipping boy of the School Doctor. Perhaps before long “ Television Syndrome ” or “ Cathode Rayitis ” will make an unfamiliar appearance in up-to-date medical textbooks. If common sense and discipline do not again prevail when the novelty of the new medium has worn thin it seems that the new technique, whatever its educational or social implications, will not be an unmixed blessing to the younger generation. Apart from the harm done by constant late hours, there is also the effect of eyestrain to be considered upon those with defective vision. Moreover, with technical developments, larger and brighter pictures suitable for daylight viewing are now commonplace. It is no unusual thing when visiting homes to find youngsters grouped around the television in a stuffy room, perhaps watching the broadcast of some sports event, when normally they would themselves have been enjoying physical exercises in healthy fresh air. Larger and brighter images are probably still to come and will be made possible by, amongst other things, greatly increased tube kilovoltages. The hazard of fire or lethal shock which may or may not then arise is not primarily the concern of the doctor. Dr. Livingstone, my Senior Assistant, who is a keen amateur wireless and television enthusiast, expressed concern as to the probable effects of secondary emission of rays or particles capable of producing noxious effects upon those exposed to them for prolonged periods at close range. He foresaw, in the event of his fears being justified, a family group of the future settling down to view their home entertainment wearing lead aprons or metal visors. However, the possible dangers of radio active emanation from television sets has been dis- cussed with a Professor of Physics at a leading hospital where radiotherapy is widely practised and a very definite assurance has been given that there is no danger whatsoever. In fact, the cathode ray tubes in television sets only produce very minute quantities of X-rays and these are so weak that they are stopped by the opaque screen in front of the set.