Air Pollution

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29224, 7 June 1960, Page 12

Air Pollution

In the first weeks of winter Christchurch people have had frequent reminders that a smog problem threatens the city and its environs; on several days the view from the Port Hills has left no doubt that the problem is developing. Christchurch people should be interested, therefore, in the views of a visitor who has had experience of air pollution by smoke and industrial fumes in its worst forms. Dr. S. Duncan is a New Zealander holding a university appointment at Manchester, a part of England that has suffered from smoke haze for generations. New Zealanders who have been there will recall with some horror the deposits of years, which blacken buildings and houses in Manchester and the complex of industrial towns associated with it. Noone suggests that New Zealand cities suffer a smoke problem as grave as Manchester’s, or are ever likely to; but with a rapidly growing population and industrial development New Zealand faces a choice of allowing smog to become worse or of doing something to check it. If Manchester is a warning of the dangers of years of uncontrolled air pollution it is also, as. Dr. Duncan reminds us, an example of the efficacy of modern control methods. Manchester, he says, has become one of the pioneer cities in England to demand “ smokeless “ zones ” and get them. In the middle of Manchester there is

a smokeless zone about half a mile square. Though small, it is effective. Even on a foggy morning the middle of the city is comparatively light and clear. In a smokeless zone the offence of having a smoking chimney is prosecuted and conviction is followed by a fine. Control of smoke is obtained by using smokeless fuels, and in houses by using approved fires. In industrial plants smoke or fumes peculiar to a particular industry may be checked or filtered by a variety of methods. Dr. Duncan mentions that control methods are easier in industrial areas and that the greatest difficulties are met in domestic fires. Already it seems that this pattern will be followed in New Zealand, especially in Christchurch. It has been estimated that domestic grates in Christchurch burn 50,000 tons of coal a year and are responsible for more than half the air pollution. New Zealand has been actively interested in this subject since 1956 when a British expert was invited to report. An increasing number of factories are coming under the special regulations. But a great deal remains to be done, as Christchurch’s smog bears witness. Tne important thing at this stage is that impetus towards control is not permitted to slacken for, as Dr ' Duncan observes, New Zealand has the advantage of applying checks before the problem becomes complicated.