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Smoke Nuisance
The saying 'prevention is better than cure' is more often honoured in the breach than in the
observance. Usually it is not until a death occurs that authorities are stimulated into action. Four
thousand deaths was the price paid in the Greater London fog of last year before public interest was
aroused in the smoke menace, a menace which has been increasing each year and is doing more harm than
all the slum conditions of 100 years ago.
The increased number of deaths from the London fog which lasted from December 5th—9th,
extended for another two weeks, and particularly affected people over 45, although young children were also
seriously affected. In the two weeks following the fog, deaths from bronchitis were ten times as many, from
influenza seven times, from pneumonia five times, from pulmonary tuberculosis four-and-a-half times, and
from other respiratory infections nearly six times as many as the average for the three weeks preceding the
fog. Other patients died earlier than they would have done from disorders of the heart and circulation or
cancer of the lung, and many children died from gastro-enteritis, which probably followed a respiratory
infection.
A recent experiment has shown that sulphur dioxide and trioxide in concentrations in the air which
are ordinarily harmless can, when they are carried to the lungs in an aerosol, becomes very poisonous and
kill an animal in four seconds.
However serious and alarming these figures are, they are only part of the story. Ultra-violet light
from the sun is cut off by smoke pollution, and damage is caused to buildings, which need increased cleaning
and decoration, and to houses and their contents; there is also corrosion of metals and damage to crops,
and interference with transport on the roads. The constant general pollution of the atmosphere has an
important effect in producing chest conditions such as bronchitis and pneumonia, and recent research has
pointed to its making an important contribution in producing cancer in the lung. The total financial damage
is estimated at about £50 million a year, equivalent to 5s. per ton of coal used.
The main cause of atmospheric pollution is the burning of coal which gives off tarry and sooty
products, together with sulphur compounds and grit or fine ash particles.
Although industrial smoke is less in the total than domestic, it is more concentrated in the areas
where it is produced and therefore is probably a greater menace for those who live there.
Three power stations add considerably to the smoke and grit in the atmosphere of Willesden.
Those responsible for the operation of the power stations have always claimed that factories and domestic
chimneys were mainly responsible for the heavy deposit of dust and grit on window sills and in rooms,
the rotting of curtains and linen, and the foreign bodies in the eyes which have been so common in Willesden.
This they have maintained despite clear evidence that when something has admittedly gone wrong in the station,
these conditions have been aggravated in the areas where the complaints usually come.
To determine the actual cause of these nuisances, standard deposit gauges for measuring atmospheric
pollution are placed to cover an area within a radius of one-quarter of a mile of each station, together
with one at the town hall as a control.
The deposit gauge is designed to collect the solid and liquid material in the atmosphere and its
analysis gives the amount of tarry matter, sulphite and sulphate and other chemicals. It collects only the
larger particles of grit; the finer particles and smoke are often dispersed, dependent upon atmospheric conditions.
It has been estimated that less than one-quarter of the smoke emitted and less than one-quarter of
the sulphur dioxide deposited as sulphite and sulphate, are actually recorded by the deposit gauge. Nevertheless,
the records give a good indication of the extent of atmospheric pollution.
For estimating sulphur dioxide in the air, a cylinder of 100 sq. cubic centimetres surface is coated
with a paste of lead peroxide and exposed for one month. An analysis of the sulphate formed gives an
estimate of the sulphur dioxide in the air.