Coal pollution claim disputed

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33479, 9 March 1974, Page 16

Coal pollution claim disputed

The principal constituents of air pollution in Christchurch are smoke and sulphur dioxide, and high concentrations of pollution occur almost exclusively during June and July as a result of temperature inversions and use of domestic open fires, the senior lecturer in chemical engineering at the University of Canterbury (Mr N. J. Peet) said yesterday.

Mr Peet was commenting on what he called an “extraordinary statement” by the Minister of Mines (Mr Colman) in “The Press” on March 7. Mr Colman was reported to have “dismissed

the degree of air pollution caused by coal burning.” Mr Colman had said that the pollutants put out of a house chimney by Strongman coal would be measured at 0.23 per cent, compared with 3.5 per cent from oil. “The source of his information is not stated, but he has either been misquoted or grossly misinformed.” Mr Peet said. “The figures he gives are the sulphur contents of Strongman coal and black industrial fuel oil,” he said. “This comparison is hardly meaningful in the context of the pollution put out of a house chimney when it is realised that the sulphur content of domestic home-heat-ing oil (black fuel oils cannot be used in domestic burners) is only about 0.23 per cent, the same as Strongman coal which has only twothirds the calorific value of the oil.” Mr Peet, said that the average domestic open fire put out about 100 times more smoke and about three times more sulphur dioxide than an oil-fired heater, for the same useful heat output, after taking efficiencies into account.