View report page

13
result of domestic fires. Factories, railway locomotives, motor
vehicles, etc., are responsible for the remainder.
Atmospheric pollution, whatever may be the cause, results
in the loss of daylight, the erosion of metals, damage to plant life
and, without doubt, has a deleterious effect on health owing to
the aggravation of already existing heart or lung disorders.
Standardised methods for measuring atmospheric pollution
have been evolved. The main instruments used are a deposit
gauge, a smoke filter, a volumetric and a lead peroxide method
for the determination of sulphur dioxide. A number of atmospheric
pollution measuring stations have been set up in London
and other parts of the country.
This Council has already purchased a deposit gauge and
lead peroxide instrument which, on the advice of the Fuel
Research Station of the Department of Scientific and Industrial
Research, and by arrangement with the London County Council,
are sited on the roof of the Queen's Road Centre, St. Mary's
Road, Peckham.
The deposit gauge is an apparatus designed to collect solid
and liquid material (i.e., rain-water) which is measured, the
acidity or alkalinity determined together with the amount of
soluble and insoluble matter. The lead peroxide instrument is
used as a means of estimating the relative concentration of
sulphur dioxide in the air.
The contents of these instruments are submitted to the
Public Analyst monthly and the results of his examinations are
forwarded to the Fuel Research Station.
The following table sets out the Public Analyst's findings
since the instruments were set up on 1st June, 1953. The
monthly deposited matter, expressed in tons per square mile is
divided into total insoluble and total soluble deposit. The
sulphur dioxide figures give a rate of sulphation as measured by
the lead peroxide instrument and are expressed in milligrams of
SO 3 per day per 100 square centimetres of lead peroxide.