London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Greenwich 1952
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Greenwich Borough]
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48
From the monthly we move to the weekly comparisons and the
following table compares weekly concentrations of Sulphur Dioxide
and Smoke during the latter 5 weeks of 1952 with similar periods in
1951.
TABLE III.—A Comparison of Weekly Mean Concentrations of Smoke and Sulphur Dioxide during 1952 with Similar Periods during 1951
| Smoke mg /100m3 | Week Ending | Sulphur Dioxide p.p. 100 million | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | 1952 | increase or decrease over 1951 | 1951 | 1952 | increase or decrease over 1951 | |
| 30.2 | — 2.9% | 29th November | 15.0 | + 29.3% | ||
| 47.8 | + 28.5% | 6th December | 17.6 | + 32.3% | ||
| 84.9 | + 55.5% | 13th December | 29.3 | + 127.1% | ||
| 20.8 | — 17.5% | 20th December | 8.8 | + 87.2% | ||
| 20.7 | + 4.5% | 27 th December | 7.5 | — | ||
*Insufficient data.
It will be seen in Table III that during the periods from 29th
November, 1952, smoke concentrations were higher in 3 of the 5
weeks covered but the greatest intensity was never much more than
one half as great as that for the similar period for 1951.
With Sulphur Dioxide however, the concentrations were
consistently higher than during the comparable periods in the
previous year. Week ending 13th December provided the highest
concentration which was considerably more than double that for
the same week in 1951.
The effect of atmospheric pollution on the mortality in the
Borough during the ' smog ' period is given in Table IV.