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AIR POLLUTION
DOMESTIC SMOKE CONTROL
It is gratifying to report that it did not prove necessary in 1971 to repeat the procedure adopted in the
previous year to suspend a proportion of the Smoke Control Orders owing to the shortage of solid smokeless
fuels. The graphs illustrate the effect of the suspension with the average smoke concentrations for the
Borough higher for the months of January, February and April,the tail end of the period affected by the
suspension than they were for 1970. Smoke Control Orders are again in full operation for the whole
Borough and no difficulties have been reported recently regarding supplies of fuel.
INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL CONTROL
The following are the number of notifications and applications received during the year in respect of
new furnace installations and chimneys:-
Clean Air Act 1956 - Section 3 (1)
Notifications of installation of furnaces (over 55,000 BTU's): 14
Clean Air Act 1956 - Section 3 (3)
Applications for prior approval of installation of furnaces (all approved): 12
Clean Air Act 1968 - Section 6
Application for approval of chimney heights (all approved): 10
CLEAN AIR ACTS - CONTRAVENTIONS
On the 13th April, 1971, at the East Central Magistrates' Court, a tailoring firm in Stanmore Street,
N.1. was fined £20 with£7costs for causing a heavy smoke emission by permitting cloth off-cuts to be
burnt on a disused basement bakery furnace in contravention of the Kings Cross (No. 1) Smoke Control
Order.
A number of complaints of heavy smoke nuisances from a hospital incinerator was confirmed by
observations carried out by officers of the Department. On investigation it was found that the existing
small gas fired incinerator had been replaced by a much larger type to cope with the large quantities of
medical waste from the wards. This waste was placed in plastic bags and the contents included plastic
petri-dish, tubes and syringes, etc., which were the cause of the smoke nuisance. A meeting was arranged
with the Hospital Group Secretary and Chief Engineer and, whilst it was agreed that it was essential for
the hospital to have plant to burn its own waste material, other arrangements were made for its disposal
until the makers had carried out modifications to the appliance to comply with the Clean Air Act. A bank
of after-burners was fitted and a further trial operation of this incinerator was carried out, starting from
cold, by the firm's own engineer and stoker. Whilst some improvement was effected, the Group Secretary
was advised that the emission of smoke did not meet the requirements of the Smoke Control Order. At the
end of the year discussions were continuing with a view to further improvements.
DANGEROUS CHEMICALS
In August a telephone complaint was received that drums of dangerous chemicals had been dumped
in the entrance of the disused Frederica Street, British Rail, Eastern Region Goods Yard. The site was visited
and it was found that seven blue coloured drums containing a waste substance were marked*Sodium Cyanide
98% - 99% N.A.C.N.'There were two further drums partly full and marked Chromic Acid flakel'lt was
imperative that the drums be removed immediately as it was a period of school holidays and children played
in this area. The Railway Police from the King's Cross Transport Terminal were contacted and the drums
were removed in a matter of hours for disposal. Enquiries failed to determine the identity of the dumpers.
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