AIR POLLUTION

Evening Star, Issue 21634, 1 February 1934, Page 5

AIR POLLUTION

CITY SMOKE NUISANCE SCIENTIST'S CLAIMS An “ atmospheric sewer ” created by invisible solids and noxious gases from a million small and large chimneys hangs in the air over New York City and threatens the health and life of its population, according to Mr H. B. Meller, head of the Air Pollution Investigation of the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, Pittsburgh, states the ‘ New York Times.’ “ During the seven darker months of the year,” Mr Meller said, “ city death rates uniformly exceed the rural rates. The country areas are relatively free from smoke the year around. “ The cities suffer most from smoke concentrations in the seven darker months. In that same period acute diseases of the respiratory tract, where irrational effects from smoke are most marked, have not decreased proportionately with other diseases. “ Fatalities from cancer are more numerous and the sugestion of their association with concentrations of tarry soot apparently has been strengthened by the recent identification of cancerinducing substances in tar.” Ordinances enacted for the abatement of smoke nuisances, Mr Mejler pointed out, relate generally to a minimising of visible smoke. The effects of invisible solids and noxious and obnoxious gases were so little understood that they were not considered by the legislators, he said. “ Only such smoke as is so dense that the stream is opaque as it leaves the stack is prohibited,” he said. “ Smoke less dense than this is permitted, as are the emission _ of coke particles, cinders, asli high in silica, unburned oil and sulphur gases. These collectively constitute a greater part of the nuisance than the amount of dense smoke which is suppressed. “ In addition, the average ordinance exempts private homes from any regulation, notwithstanding that this group has proved its largo part in the, making of the winter smoke pall. Continuation of current practice gives no promise that it will result in the degree of abatement demanded by hygienic considerations.” Less than twenty years ago, Mr Meller added, visitors were profuse in their praise of the yearround quality of New York air. Dating from about the period of the armistice the quality of thaj city’s air supply began to change. “To-day,” he said, “New Yorks combination of fuels, appliances and combustion processes constitutes the most compact jumble of that sort possible to find anywhere. A recent report of the Society for Testing Materials states that its tests- have revealed the air of New York to be industrial ’ in type and to rank m corrosive properties with Pittsburgh and other distinctively industrial cities. “ This change for the worse is attracting the serious attention of physical chemists, architects, and engineering authorities, as well as causing perturbation on the part of physicians, biologists, and others. Determinations by Dr E. E. Free lead him to say the pollution to-day is almost double what it was some ten years ago. A thorough-going prescription for the control of atmospheric sewage was never produced, but _ the engineers stand ready to fill it in in an acceptable manner whenever it is written.” Mr Meller said it was evident that the continuance of the air pollution nuisance caused by products of combustion was duo to the absence of adequate laws and provisions for their enforcement. “ Certain well-indicated changes,” he said, “ might be made at once which would result in a very material improvement in conditions during the period just ahead, when we hope the consumption of fuel for all purposes will be multiplied many times. “ At the same time a carefully compiled, comprehensive programme could

be prepared to determine the amount and distribution, the chemical and physical properties, the sources and effects of the various constituents in the atmospheric pollution in the area of which New York City is a part. Each great smoke-producing area must be treated as an entity, and regulations written for it will respect the reasonable limitations imposed by prevailing conditions, as well as point towards the ideal.”