GASSED NIGHTLY

Hawera Star, Volume L, 29 July 1930, Page 9

GASSED NIGHTLY

CALCUTTA’S POLLUTED AIR. CALCUTTA. July 18. Although Calcutta cannot be describes as an industrial atea comparable with those, -of Europe and America, the- Bengal -Smoke Nuisances Commission pens a pungent report. “The air we breathe in Calcutta,” the report says, “is polluted and stagnant, and in seme districts for long periods- is. unfit for human consumption. Residents in some districts are gassed nightly for hours, and life- is awful.” The commission, neverthelesrs. has done much good work. The daily discharge of isteamor and factory black smoke has been reduced from 200.006 to 5500 minutes. “Calcutta’s greatest smoke problem, ’ the commission reports, “is tire deadly low-lying domestic and kindred smoke, which at present is exempted and against which... therefore,, no action is possible. The daily discahrge of this kind of smoke is over 1.500,000 minutes. As a result. Calcutta’s respiratory diseases cause the largest death rate of any disease, and half the deaths among the babies.”