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Air pollution
The table below shows for the past five winters the average levels of pollution based on
the seven recording stations described in appendix B to my report for 1956.
Winter averages of air pollution
Average daily readings of seven volumetric recording stations
Micrograms per cubic metre
Winter
'Smoke'
'Sulphur
dioxide'
Ratio
smoke/SO2
1958-1959
309
340
0.9
1959-1960
206
275
0.7
1960-1961
200
277
0.7
1961-1962
182
302
0.6
1962-1963
173
365
0.5
There has been a noticeable downward trend in the smoke index (a trend which began
in 1956-57) but the sulphur dioxide figures, which showed a diminution between 1958-59
and 1960-61, increased slightly in 1961-62 and rose again in this last winter. It must be
borne in mind that the figures are for the (six) winter months, including those of December
1962 and January and February 1963 when there was an exceptionally cold spell (the
coldest since 1871); this in turn led to a very considerable increase in the demand for fuel
for heating purposes. The sulphur pollution figures for December and January were higher
than for any of the previous four winters and that for February was the highest since
1958-59. With increased fuel consumption there will be inevitably more pollution; the
fact that the smoke figures were not correspondingly higher is a natural accompaniment of
the Clean Air Act, 1956 in which London leads the rest of the country with 25 per cent.
of the area covered by Smoke Control Orders in force.
A particularly foggy incident occurred over the five days 3-7 December; the interest on
this occasion was that the meteorological conditions were similar to those of the great
' smog' of December 1952. However, though the concentrations of sulphur were similar
to those of 1952, the concentration of smoke was much lower. Excess mortality due to fog
was estimated at 340 deaths compared with 2,000 in 1952, 480 in January 1956 and 300 in
December 1957 (excluding those arising from the Lewisham rail disaster). A detailed
account of this episode was given in ' The Medical Officer ' of 28 April, 1963 (109, 250-252).
The weather
1962 was a year of about average temperature and sunshine with a lower than usual
rainfall. However, these averages mask seasonal variations (table V 4, page 22). January
and February were relatively warm and sunny, followed by a cold spring and summer
with rainfall below average until August and a deficiency of sunshine, except for the
month of June. December sunshine was twice the average but temperatures were low,
heralding the very cold weather experienced in the following January and February.
B
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