BIG SOOT BILL

Hokitika Guardian, 2 December 1933, Page 2

BIG SOOT BILL

ENGLAND’S £40,000,000 ANNUALLY

LONDON, November 29,

Soot enough to cover Hdye Park to a depth of 10 in: falls in London in one year; yet London is not Britain’s smokiest city. Approximately two and a-half million tons of soot, it is calculated escapes annually into atmosphere from domestic fireplaces, and ,half-a-million tons from industrial chimneys.

It is impossible to estimate the loss the smoke nuisance means, but in Manchester it makes the cost of household washing, for instance, over £290,000 a year. If two milion people travelling into London are held up for one hour by fog, of which the soot is a main ingredient, the loss of working time is estimated to be £l/0,000. The Office of Works spends £1,750,000 a year in looking after Government buildings, Royal palaces and Houses of Parliament, but of that large sum 30 or 40 per cent would be saved were tho atmosphere acid-free and smokeless. Altogether it is safe to say that the smoke menace costs the country £40,000,000 a year in wastq> and damage. Luckily the increasing use of electricity and gas- has greatly decreased the nuisance, and in London during the past 15 years the fall of soot- has been reduced by a-half.* r