'Clean-air zone no use if coal used’

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34151, 12 May 1976, Page 1

'Clean-air zone no use if coal used’

Adding coal to the list of authorised fuels for use in Christchurch’s proposed clean-air zone would destroy the effect of granting the zone, the secretary of the New Zealand Clean Air Society (Mr D. W. King) said yesterday. 9, He was commenting on the approval by the Minister of Health (Mr Gill), announced yesterday, of the clean-air zone as proposed by Dr J. M. Bamford. One of Dr Bamford’s recommended alterations was that the listed authorised fuels of “coke, char, or charcoal” be altered to any solid fuel. Mr King said he criticised the proposed change very strongly. “It would take the guts out of the whole proposal; it means you could bum any old muck. The fuels originally listed are, in effect, smokeless fuels, which coal is not.” If the recommendation to

allow coal was approved it would negate the proposal and there would be no change at all, because under present building regulations the engineers of both Waimairi County and Christchurch City had not accepted for some years open fires as suitable heating. He agreed there was insufficient evidence of pollution from cars, but the Health Department (as far as he knew) had yet to install an ozone measurer which, he had been told, would be in by last summer. He said the Clean Air Society supported the use of coal — but only in professionally designed and properly maintained and run combustion units. Mr King also criticised Dr Bamford’s statement that pollution levels in Christchurch were not proven to be injurious to human health. He said there was substantial evidence to the contrary, and that he was supported by respiratory physiologists. The coal industry in Christ-

church has welcomed Di Bamford’s proposed clean-air zone. Mr S. Armstrong, chairman of the Coal Promotion Council, said the recommendations would bring comfort to the older people of the city, who, in many cases, did not have the means to install approved appliances. The coal industry' had long acknowledged that burning coal in open fires created smoke which was part of the over-all pollution problem in the city. He said the industry had tried its best to help this by reducing the sulphur content of coal for domestic use, trying to educate the domestic user, and by encouraging the importation and manufacture of clean burning and approved appliances. “The sulphur content pt domestic coal burned in Christchurch is at present less than 0.3 per cent — a far cry from the average of 6 to 8 per cent of 10 years ago.’’ ‘