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43
In England some efforts have been made to control atmospheric
pollution by the setting up of " smokeless zones " and in certain
areas some authorities are in favour of letting their flats and houses
only on condition that tenants use nothing but smokeless fuel.
However, the control or elimination of smoke will not completely
solve the problem, for much of the damage to health and
property is probably due to concentrations of transparent or odourless
gases which in themselves may constitute a much more difficult
obstacle to surmount.
From the very considerable mass of evidence obtained in
response to its questionnaire the Beaver Committee may be able to
produce a document upon which legislation of a sort that will be both
practicable and expeditious may be based, but this would appear
to be a rather optimistic view. Everyone is agreed that this atmospheric
pollution is a threat to health and destructive to property,
but sufficient data which can stand the test of legal investigation
has yet to be obtained.
Greenwich is fortunate in that a Government Fuel Research
Station comprising a section dealing with atmospheric pollution is
established in the area and I am indebted to Dr. Wilkins, Officerin-Charge
of the latter department for permission to make use of
data compiled at the Station.
Observations concerning rainfall, deposited matter and sulphur
dioxide are given in Table I. The deposited matter, expressed in
tons per square mile, is divided into total soluble and total insoluble
deposit. The sulphur dioxide figures give a rate of sulphation as
measured by the lead-peroxide instrument and are expressed in
milligrammes of SO3 per day per 100 cm2.
In Table II, smoke is expressed as milligrammes per 100 cubic
metres and sulphur dioxide as parts per 100 million parts of air.
One part of SO2 per 100 million parts of air is equivalent to approximately
2.86 milligrammes of SO2 per 100 cubic metres.