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112
The position with regard to coal smoke is a striking
illustration of the slowness of our progress despite the
teaching of science, to say nothing of common sense.
The burning of crude coal, especially in the domestic
open grate has been known for years to be the most
wasteful and the least efficient way of obtaining heat.
From a public health point of view, the filthy state of
the atmosphere resulting from crude coal fires is sufficient
to condemn them, apart from the many other weighty
reasons for their abolition. A limited amount of improvement
has been obtained by greater attention to
industrial chimney stacks under the Public Health
(Smoke Abatement) Act, 1926, but no substantial
improvement can be expected until there is a radical
change in our methods of heating, domestic as well as
industrial.
NOISE.
During the past few years the question of noise
as a factor in ill - health has received well needed
attention. In 1928 the British Medical Association
prepared a Memorandum on Preventable Noises which
was submitted to the Minister of Health. The subject
has more recently been under consideration by the
Metropolitan Boroughs' Standing Joint Committee.
Among the preventable noises may be mentioned :—
(i) insufficiently silenced motor vehicles ;
(ii) unnecessarily raucous warning instruments
carried by motor vehicles ;
(iii) barking dogs and crowing cocks, especially in
congested areas ;
(iv) cries and bells of street vendors ;
(v) careless handling of milk churns ;
(vi) noise from shunting, etc., on railways ;
(vii) public wireless loud speakers ;
(viii) industrial machinery constructed or operated
without regard to the noise produced thereby.