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National Smoke Abatement Society.— The City Council takes an active
interest in the work of this Society. Councillor Mrs. Alderson Home,
as a member of the Public Health Committee, attended its meetings
and annual Conference at Glasgow and reported fully to the Committee
on the proceedings.
Investigation of Atmospheric Pollution.—Department of Scientific and
Industrial Research.—In view of the work undertaken by the City Council
in relation to the investigation of atmospheric pollution, the Department
mentioned invited the Council to appoint members to the Standing
Conference of co-operating bodies. This body consists of representatives
of local authorities, industrial undertakings, scientific societies, &c.,
actively interested in such investigations. The Council appointed your
Medical Officer of Health and Mr. T. McLachlan, one of the City's public
analysts, as its representatives. They attended the meetings held in
May and November when matters relating to administration of smoke
legislation and research into causes of atmospheric pollution were
discussed.
Battersea Power Station.
The Committee presided over by the Government Chemist, who have
been investigating the efficacy of the methods employed at the Battersea
Power Station for preventing the emission of dangerous fumes into the
air, issued their second report on the 15th October, 1934.
The Committee were impressed by the endeavour and energy displayed
by the London Power Company to reduce the quantity of sulphur
gases escaping into the air to a low value, the value then being about
0.03 grains of sulphur as sulphurous anhydride per cubic foot of air.
The Committee point out that the results achieved from the present
working of the plant for eliminating sulphur fumes, smoke, grit, etc.,
have fulfilled the expectations which were formed of the process during
the experimental stage, and it is only because the problem is a new one
and further improvement in the processes may reasonably be anticipated,
that the Committee have recommended that sanction for the completion
of the station should not be given without regard to the most recent
developments in technical knowledge on the subject of the removal of
sulphur compounds from flue gases.
With the object, if possible, to ascertain whether the Battersea Station
would increase the sulphur gas contained in the atmosphere of Westminster,
the City Council in 1932, installed instruments for measuring the
sulphur gas contained in the air. The results of those examinations for