Clean Air

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32210, 31 January 1970, Page 10

Clean Air

Sir,—ls A. B. Cedarian a refugees from the British Clean Air Act, did he relish the breath-taking rhapsody of the “London Particular” and has he settled in Christchurch because we still have the old domestic coal fire smoke haze? According to Mr A. J. Lazurus, State coal, ("Star.” 24/4/68) the annual domestic coal sales were 75,000 tons in 1967 and would rise to 96,000 tons by 1976; D.S.I.R. report No. 55 estimated average annual usage of 55,000 tons from 196065. The Air Pollution Report also warned of the low ventilation rate peculiar to Christchurch; under clear, stilb frosty conditions the city is virtually sealed off by a 400 ft high, horizontal plastic screen. Perhaps A. B. Cedarian wisely knowing his special breathing requirements has come to the right place to live. During winder evenings he will have a profusion of coal smoke, sulphur oxides and other fumes to revel In. —Yours, etc., PATRICK NEARY. January 30, 1970.

Sir,—With regard to your splendid article “Pollution Becomes An Tn’ Word,” man certainly is a messy creature who from the time that he gave up his nomadic existence has set about to carelessly ruin his environment ignorant of the fact that there is a limit to everything and only at this point of time ha* he come to realise that everything including oxygen ha* it* limits. Mr Nixon has placed pollution among the top priority problems to be tackled —Mr Holyoake please take note and act before it is too late. At the present rate of pollution even the most optimistic authority can only predict man’s possibility of continued existence for another 20 years.—Yours, etc., JOHN FORSTER. January 28, 1970.

Sir,—“Facts” infer* that the Regional Planning Authority’s Air Pollution Committee was biased against coal when it produced its report from which I quoted the information regarding pollution in this city. The spring, 1969, official journal of the New Zealand Coal Mining Districts’ Welfare and Research Council has an article by W. Oldershaw, Ph.D., in which, referring to Christchurch, he states: “Most houses burn coal on open fires and so the area affected by smoke gets bigger every year and the effect (of smog) intensifies.” He then goes on to say that “New Zealand wastes 20 per cent of a valuable mineral resource by burning 500,000 tons of coal on open fires every year.” Coal is not objected to, only the smoke produced by inefficient an 4 expensive combustion of this fuel. —Yours, etc., " SMOG CITY RESIDENT. January 30, 1970.

Sir, —On Wednesday morning temperatures were rising to a very hot day, and Mr D. H. Tilson, an American chemical engineer, is reported as saying he saw smog at that time on his way down to Lyttelton from town. This smog, on a hot morning after a hot night, hardly contained domestic coal fumes. Before buying Westport coal or building a Christchurch.chlmney, is made a criminal offence, knowledge is required of the proportion of a Christchurch smog which is due to the burning of domestic coal. Progress movements and societies based on origins overseas, sometimes tend to get in a paddy and forget local circumstances alter cases. Pat Neary accuses residents of keeping “foul smelling open coal fires.” His experience of smel■ly hearths must be up- ■ ique. No-one should fume at : the sight of a chimney and • himself drive around chim- ■ neying carbon monoxide at ■ ground level.—Yours, etc., ! A. B. CEDARIAN. January 30, 1970. [This correspondence is now closed.—Ed., “The Press.”]