Smoke warning wanted

Press, 23 May 1977, Page 2

Smoke warning wanted

The Environmental Van-[ guard Organisation has ] again asked the Christchurch' City Council to establish an "early warning system” toi let residents know when winter evening smoke levels j are going to be particularly! high. Such a system was first proposed in 1975. The environmental group's chairman (Dr Helen Hervey) said that people would be told about smoke levels in radio and television broadcasts, and would be requested not to light open fires or build up fires already going. Christchurch smoke levels; were down last year from the year before, but it was impossible to say whether that was because of better controls or unusual weather, Dr Hervey said. "With the greatly increased price for electricity since the council adopted clean air zoning for Christchurch, there could be stronger public opposition to the phasing out of open fires,” she said. However, Dr Hervey said that others could be more willing to co-operate with a council-backed programme of reducing such fires to the minimum when air pollution was high.