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43
River Pollution.—Complaints continue to be received from
time to time in connection with smells emanating from the River.
The smells arise mainly from the movement up and down with the
tides of a permanent concentration of inadequately treated sewage
effluents discharged at the Northern and Southern Outfalls situated
at Beckton and Crossness respectively.
Work costing approximately £5½ million on the diffused air
and sludge digestion plant at the Northern Outfall works has now
commenced, and when this and similar works at the Southern Out—
fall, (as itemised in the 1952 Report) have been completed, in the
opinion of the London County Council, this will render the River
inoffensive from this source of pollution.
A certain amount of river pollution also arises from the dis—
charge of trade effluent into sewers and further control of this aspect
of pollution is expected to result from the application of Part II of
the London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1953, which came
into operation on the 1st April of the current year.
Atmospheric Pollution.—" Smog " consciousness appears
very difficult to generate in the minds of the public at large and
perhaps more difficult still to bring home to them the fact that
occasional " smog," serious though it may be, is less of a menace to
health (and less costly) than the results of the perpetual day-to-day
pollution of our air.
In an appendix to the Beaver Report presented to Parliament
in November, 1954, it was stated that even a very modest estimate
of the direct economic cost under the headings of laundry, painting
and decorating, cleaning and depreciation of buildings other than
houses, corrosion of metals, damage to textiles and other goods,
amounts to some £150 million, and the loss of efficiency, e.g., effects
on agriculture, damage to soil, crops and animals, interference with
transport and reduced human efficiency due to illness, amounts to a
further £100 million per year. At this rate, air pollution is costing
the nation some £250 million a year in terms only of losses that can
be given a monetary value, and even this figure does not include the
value of the lost fuel through incomplete combustion estimated at
between £25 million and £50 million each year.
It is stated in the Beaver Report that a clear association exists
between pollution and the incidence of bronchitis and other respira—
tory diseases and that ' air pollution is a social and economic evil
which should no longer be tolerated and that it needs to be combated
with the same conviction and energy as were applied 100 years ago
in securing pure water.'