BLIGHT ON LIFE

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 155, 28 December 1935, Page 12

BLIGHT ON LIFE

SMOKE OVER ENGLAND

THE EFFECT ON THE COUNTRY

STOCK AND TEEES

We have for a hundred years or more been clustering like sardines in a tin under the smoke pall of our enlightened cities and admiring our superiority over primitive man, said Dr. K. A. des Voeux in his presidential j address lo the annual conference of the National Smoke Abatement Society at Bristol, reports the "Manchester Guardian." "A slow change seems to be occurring, but it is slow and faltering, and he must be a persistent optimist who can today visualise the beautiful manufacturing city of the future, built and designed not only for the making of money but for its educative value on the young lives of the future; beauty to be seen in the streets and in the houses; beauty and cleanliness which- will be steeped in the blood and bones of children; beauty in surroundings which can never be forgotten and by which they will learn that dirt and ugliness are a sin against Nature and art and which will giude them to future health and happiness." SURVEY SUGGESTED. A suggestion that a comprehensive survey of the causes of atmospheric pollution should be considered was made by Dr. R. Lessing, consulting chemist and chemical engineer, in a paper on the sources of atmospheric pollution. "Sufficiently detailed and trustworthy statistical data for estimating the damage done are not available," he said, "but it is certain that the damage suffered by the community amounts to probably not less than £1 per annum per head of the urban population." . . Striking figures were quoted by Dr. Lessing to show the extent of atmospheric pollution. In addition to pollution by smoke and acids, Dr. Lessing also called, attention to the question of flue dusi 'The flue .dust nuisance is by no means restricted to industrial furnaces proper," he said. "There is a rapidly increasing danger of a serious addition to atmospheric pollution by dust from the boilers installed for central heating and hot water supply in the rapidly, increasing number of flats, offices, hotels, hospitals, and institutions already referred to. In the individual dwelling-house with its multiplicity of separate chimneys for each fireplace reasonably low flue gas velocities are employed and consequently dust emission is restricted. In the larger buildings, each serving a small community of people, the heating services are centralised, and in consequence assume quite appreciable proportions. The flue gas velocities therefore become so high, particularly where forced draught is employed, that there is a risk of dust and grit being ejected, which owing to the usual situation in densely populated and high class residential districts gives rise frequently to particularly objectionable nuisances." A STONY ROAD. Mr. J. W. Beaumont, of Halifax, in a paper on solid smokeless fuel, said that until there was an adequate supply of smokeless fuel available to the public at a price comparable with that of bituminous coal the road to atmospheric purity would be somewhat stony and the joiirney would be tedious. He emphasised that the society was entirely indifferent as to the type of fuel used, solid, gas, or electricity, either for industrial or for domestic purposes, provided it was smokeless, and welcomed advances made in fuel or equipment in any direction. They could not expect legislation in .respect of domestic smoke until smokeless methods of heat production were available in adequate quantities and at prices within the reach of all who needed them. Then pressure could be brought to bear upon the Minister of Health for the passing of such legislation as was necessary for the prohibition of the use of raw coal in domestic fireplaces. He thought such action as that recently decided upon by the Manchester City Council to endeavour to create a smoke-consciousness in the minds of its citizens was far more likely to produce good results than the mere passing of condemnatory or restrictive resolutions. "Practically the whole of the countryside in South Lancashire and Yorkshire is visibly affected, as if by a blight, by the smoke from millions of neighbouring factory and domestic chimneys." said Dr. A. G. Ruston, lecturer and advisory economist, Department of Agriculture, University of Leeds, in a paper on smoke and the countryside. "Experimental evidence goes to show that one would not be very wide of the mark in stating that as far as the householder is concerned, for every ton of cdal he buys one hundredweight goes up the chimney unconsumed^ while as far as the factory is concerned there is at least a loss of one.stone out of every ton of coal purchased. MILLIONS OF TONS. "In this way nearly 2,500,000 tons of soot escape annually into the area of this country in the form of smoke pollution. The greater bulk is blown away, polluting the atmosphere for miles round all over our great manufacturing and residential areas. "Smoke from Industrial England has been observed as far away as Valentia Island, on the west coast of Ireland; the smoke drift of London is frequently seen by air pilots over the Channel and Northern France; a soot fringe on the edge of Coniston Water—derived from Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire —has been photographed by Professor Cohen; it has been alleged that the sheep on the Isle of Man turn darker in colour when an cast wind blows across from Lanca-' shire. ■ ■ .' I "The economic effects of smoke pollution, with its deposits of tar and acid upon the grassland in the smoke areas, are enormous," he continued. "The leguminous plants and finer grasses disappear, and the herbage usually consists mainly of bent. Yorkshire fog, woodrush, sorrel, yarrow, and moor grasses, while the feeding value of the coarse grasses and weeds which survive is considerably reduced. This, again, is reflected in the diminished stock-carry-ing capacity of the land, and land which some thirty years ago was carryins; two bullocks to the acre will now carry less than one head of stock to three acres. AFFECTED BY SMOKE. "Not only is the milk in our industrial areas produced at a higher cost per gallon, but the actual composition of the milk so produced is undoubtedly detrimentally influenced indirectly by smoke pollution. This poorness in lime of the milk produced in our industrial areas is a matter of considerable importance, and undoubtedly is one contributory factor to the prevalence of rickets and home trouble in the children reared in our manufacturing towns."

In a discussion Dr. Ruston was asked whether smoke had any effect on the newly-noticed disease in elm

and ash trees. He replied that trees kept an automatic record. He quoted an instance where conifers had been grown in a certain area, and when coke ovens were brought into the area the rings indicating the yearly growth showed a sharp narrowing, recording that something had happened at that particular time. They could count back the rings and find that the narrowing occurred during the year in which the coke ovens were established. At the conclusion of the conference Councillor W. Asbury moved a resolution that the time was now ripe to give serious consideration to the question of qualified exemptions in certain industries' under the Smoke Amendment Act of 1926, and whether they should be withdrawn. He proposed that the executive committee should collect information on the subject from I local authorities with the object of I making representations to the Government. Baillie W. Brownhill Smith, of the Scottish branch of the society, seconded, and the resolution was unanimously carried.