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38
Measurement of atmospheric pollution
The situation of the three measurement stations in the borough
was described in my annual report for 1951 (page 31). Owing to vandalism,
the apparatus which had been set up in the recreation ground
belonging to the London county council and situated at the end of
Winsford Road had to be moved a little distance away, to a site in
the Pool allotments, 270 yards to the north-east. Table 21 gives a
record of the principal results from these three stations and also gives
some indication of the sunshine, rainfall, etc., during the year. Some
of these latter data are not specific to the borough, having been obtained
from a publication of the meteorological office and thus relating to
the nearest station which records the particular item concerned. This,
for the first few months of the year, was the Observatory at Greenwich,
but unfortunately when the Observatory was moved to Sussex even
the simple observations of temperature, etc., ceased, and the nearest
station subsequently was Croydon.
The fog
The fog of early December, 1952 has been described as a disaster,
both for its material effects and for having caused the deaths of some
4,000 persons in the greater London area. There are qualifications
which should be made to this latter statement since the death rate
was increasing for a week or so before the fog, due to some influenzal,
viral, or other infection, probably made worse by the colder weather
which had set in suddenly about the middle of November. Further, it
appears clear that the excess deaths, in Lewisham at any rate, were almost
entirely of persons with severe pre-existing heart or lung disease, the
fog being the final straw. To this extent the fog can be considered to
have antedated "normal" death, but whether this antedating was by
hours, days, weeks or even a few months does not get away from the
fact that fog is a menace to human life. Figures for sickness are not so
easy to assess, but from weekly returns we obtain from the Ministry
of National Insurance it appears that there was an increase in sickness
which began in the second half of November, and increased, but to a
moderate extent only, in the first week of December, becoming almost
double the normal in the week ending December 16, but returning
suddenly to below normal in the week ending December 23. This
seems to indicate that there was on the whole a quick recovery from
the fog effects, though conversation with individuals gives the impression
that there was some less serious but annoying sickness, such as a slight
cough, or a feeling of being below par, which lasted the rest of the
winter.
Meteorologically the position was that between December 5 and 8
a high pressure system of relatively cool air was established over
London, with an unusually prolonged period of calm. A temperature
inversion some three or four hundred feet up occurred, the temperature
above being greater than that below; thus the cold air immediately
above the ground was overlaid by warmer air, with a sharply defined
ceiling between them. Fog, smoke and other atmospheric pollution
will collect below such a ceiling.