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accompanied by certain material by-products and it is their discharge
into the air which constitutes air pollution. It is within
this context that atmospheric pollution must be considered a
serious threat to the quality of urban life and its prevention of
prime importance to local authorities and their policies.
Employment of coal as a fuel was first recorded as early as
852 A.D. and, since that time, its use domestically by a persistently
expanding population has been the main source of air
pollution in towns and cities. Industry, being increasingly dependent
upon coal and oil for the energy requirements needed to
support these growing communities, has added to the contamination.
This symbiosis between industrial and conurbation centres
is a formidable obstacle confronting efforts towards a cleaner
atmosphere.
Once contaminated and discharged into the atmosphere, air is
virtually impossible to purify artificially and must await dispersal
and dilution by natural means. It is during this period that
the destructive and malign elements of the pollutants become
operative. Fortunately, industrial pollution is usually emitted at
a higher level than that from the domestic fire which constitutes
the greater hazard to local inhabitants. (Approximately
4i lbs. is lost in smoke for every ton of coal burnt industrially
compared with 90 lbs. for the domestic apparatus). It follows,
therefore, that to be effective it is essential that pollution be
controlled at source.
Constituents of pollution resulting from the combustion of
raw coal may be itemised as:—
1. Carbonaceous matter—resulting from incomplete combustion
of the volatile part of coal.
2. Tar—formed in the process of destructive distillation of
bituminous coal.
3. Ash—drawn up from the fire by the rush of air passing
through the fuel.
4. Sulphur—derived from sulphur compounds in coal
(eventually forming sulphurous and sulphuric acids).
5. Grit—particles of unburnt coal carried away in the draught.
Research has revealed that smoke concentration is relative
not to the size of an area but to the density of its population and
its domestic coal consumption per square mile. My Reports have
constantly drawn attention to the enormous and costly damage