POLLUTION OF AIR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22845, 28 September 1937, Page 6

POLLUTION OF AIR

BIG INDUSTRIAL CITIES BENEFITS FROM RESEARCH [FROM OUR OWN CORRF.srONDK.NT] LONDON, Sept. 4 An investigation of the air-pollutiofl nuisance has been carried out by the British Government, and -the resultsshow that there has lately been a definite improvement in many of the industrial districts. In recent years, observations have been made regularly at different centres in all parts of the country in order to measure the impurities suspended in the atmosphere and to analyse the deposits washed down by rainwater. Engineers and chemists are working to suppress-smoke and noxious gases, and an increasing number of firms are designing fume elimination machinery. Apparently, the sources of sulphur pollution are not necessarily the same as those responsible for smoke P"'.' 1 !" tion, and industrial furnaces which have no provision for the absorption of sulphur are one of the principal causes of the deterioration of building stone in industrial cities, and also constitute a menace to public health. A great deal of research has been devoted to this problem. At the new Fulham power station, one of the largest in London, a new type of flue gas-washing equipment has been provided, and the gases issuing from the 300-foot chimneys are now absolutely harmless. . ' . For the pall of smoke which hangs over a modern city, domestic fires are largely responsible, and householders are being urged to give up ordinary coal fires and use anthracite, which burns with a smokeless flame. Although in South Wales there is an anthracite area covering nearly 2000 square nines, and the quality is universally acknowledged to be the best obtainable, about 75 per cent of the total output is still exported, Canada alone taking each vear about 1,000.000 tons.