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43
ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION
Twelve complaints were received regarding localised
smoke emissions and 334 observations were made thereon by the
Sanitary Inspectors, whose advice to the users of the offending
equipment was generally effective in minimizing any nuisance.
Fewer complaints were received regarding smoke and
fumes from the railway ventilating shafts and periodic observation
of the shafts indicated that some improvement has possibly
occurred. However, nothing less than complete elimination of
emissions from these shafts, situated as they are in the midst
of good residential property, can be regarded as satisfactory.
Co-operation with the Fuel Research Station on the
measurement of atmospheric pollution continued and, in fact,
has been extended. The work undertaken now falls under four
main headings:-
1. Deposit gauges are placed at Barrow Hill Reservoir
and Fortune Green Cemetery, in which rainfall and general "fallout"
of air pollution are collected over each month. The
collected matter is subjected to analysis by the Public Analyst
and yields information on the amount and composition (e.g. ash
and grit, the acidity factor of rainfall) of actual deposits
from the air of that particular locality.
2. Lead peroxide instruments at the reservoir and the
cemetery, in which lead peroxide is exposed over periods of
one month and, again on analysis, provide an index of the
activity of sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere.
3. The continuous filter which is operated permanently
at the Public Health Department and from which daily readings
are taken by the Sanitary Inspectors of the amounts of smoke
and other suspended impurities in the atmosphere.
Starting in January, 1955, an adjunct to the continuous
filter has been used to calculate the concentration of sulphur
dioxide. This is again carried out every day (Sundays excepted).
At the request of the Fuel Research Station the
ladings from the continuous filter (3 - 4 above) were stepped
up to 3 and 4 per day in times of thick fog, but in the period
under review this was found necessary only on the 30th November
and 1st December.