THE PRESS MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1982. Time to fight pollution

Press, 11 October 1982, Page 20

THE PRESS MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1982. Time to fight pollution

Winter has gone and taken with it for another year the worst of Christchurch’s air pollution from open fires. The reprieve is only temporary; in about nine months the air on many day's and nights will be choked with smog again. Now is a good time to attack the problem with fresh vigour. Winter campaigns against air pollution tend to fall on deaf ears; even if they are sympathetic it is not the best time to make drastic changes to household heating gear. Further into the summer the offensiveness of air pollution has dimmed and no longer seems an immediate concern. This is the best time to step up the campaign to encourage householders to make changes. In spite of the visual antf scientifically measured evidence of the Severity of the city’s pollution from open fires, chimneys continue to put out far too much smoke. This could be understandable if homes could not be heated any other way, or if other means of heating were much more expensive. Less polluting methods of heating are in fact cheaper. A mistaken belief persists in many homes that the open fire is the cheapest method of home heating. The Clean Air Council, in association with the Ministry of Energy, has established that this is not true. Open fires fuelled with scrap wood, rubbish, and other discarded combustibles may seem to be cheap to stoke; but less heat comes from these fuels than from coal, and generally they give off more pollutants. The low efficiency of the standard fireplace — about 20 per cent when burning coal and around 15 per cent when

wood is the fuel — is one reason that it costs up to 2.4 cents more to get a kilowatt-hour of usable heat into a room from an open fire than it costs to get the same heat by using electric heating. Over all, the open fire burning coal is the most expensive way of heating the home, according to the Ministry's figures. After a relatively pollution-free winter in 1981. when the weather patterns were of great assistance, smoke levels rose again in the winter just past. In the inner suburbs the smoke levels almost reached those of 1980, the worst winter for pollution on the Christchurch records.

The regional air pollution control officer for the Department of Health in Christchurch, Mr D. R. Pullen, estimates that if domestic smoke emissions could be reduced by half, pollution in Christchurch would drop to below the World Health Organisation’s recommended maximum levels. These levels have not been attained since official readings began in Christchurch. The target is attainable. It is desirable. Achieving it need not be expensive and could even result in substantial savings in heating costs in many households. Clean air laws will eventually prevail. In the meantime, another summer provides the time to convert from open fires to either approved appliances, which reduce but do not eliminate pollution, or to all-electric heating. Although cleaner fuels will become mandatory, the beginning of the next winter will be too late for effective steps to be taken to reduce the city’s smoke pollution, other than a resolve simply not to light the open fire.