Plan to counter Chch smog problem

Press, 30 May 1987, Page 1

Plan to counter Chch smog problem

By

GLEN PERKINSON

Smokeless days will be encouraged in Christchurch from June 5.

As part of a campaign to halt increasing pollution and associated health hazards the Canterbury United Council has asked Christchurch residents to forgo open fires on winter days when smog is likely to be a problem. In spite of the plan being voluntary, the United Council believed residents would co-oper-ate and the city would benefit through reduced smog. At a public release yesterday afternoon the United Council’s chairman, Mrs Margaret Murray, said more than 67 per cent of Christchurch residents surveyed agreed with smokeless days. The United Council’s planning services director, Dr Chris Kissling, said the council hoped the $40,000 promotion campaign would increase the number of residents observing the fireless days over the winter. “It is not going to be a 30-day wonder,” he said. The United Council’s campaign will use newspapers, radio and television to publicise the days when fires should not be lit. Information the United Council received from the Meteorological Service would be used to determine the severity of inversion layers and the likely incidence of smog. Once that information was received the council would “activate a system of publicity” warning residents that fires should not be lit.

Those with fires already burning would be expected to douse them and use alternative heating. As an incentive for people to

switch to electricity the Municipal Electricity Department offers $l5OO interest-free loans for installation of electric heaters.

Mrs Murray said that Christchurch’s smog reached, and even exceeded, World Health Organisation limits about 30 times a year.

Clean air zones, instituted in the 19705, had an effect on limiting air pollution but had not reduced the problem significantly enough for air pollution to be disregarded as a health hazard.

“We are not creating a law that says ‘thou shalt not light fires’ — these bans will only occur when weather reports indicate pollution will be a problem,” she said.

The United Council and some medical authorities maintained that Christchurch’s air pollution problem was a health hazard and led to sickness and, in some cases, death. The Health Department considers the level of pollution in Christchurch insignificant and no threat to health.

Dr Terry Brady, a scientist in the department, believed limiting open fires during peak inversion times would help lower the level of pollution in the city but the present levels were not a health hazard.

The department recently dissociated itself from a United Council report which claimed that health was being adversely affected by smog and that smokeless days would alleviate the risk. Picture, page 8