London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

View report page

Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London

London County Council 1963

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]

This page requires JavaScript

Text

Copy text to clipboard

Air pollution
The table below shows for the past six winters the average levels of pollution based on
the seven recording stations described in appendix B to my report for 1956.

Table: Winter averages of air pollution Average daily readings of seven volumetric recording stationsMicrograms per cubic metre

Winter averages of air pollution Average daily readings of seven volumetric recording stationsMicrograms per cubic metre

Winter' Smoke'' Sulphur dioxide'Ratio smoke/S02
1958-19593093400.9
1959-19602062750.7
1960-19612002770.7
1961-19621823020.6
1962-19631733650.5
1963-19641532840.5

Text

Copy text to clipboard

There has been a consistent downward trend in the smoke index (a trend which began in
1956-57); although exact comparison is not possible because of a change in the method of
measurement in 1961, pollution by smoke is now about one-third of what it was nine years
ago. Pollution from sulphur dioxide does not show any similar trend—although there are
year-to-year fluctuations the average level remains what it was some six to nine years ago.
The weather
The monthly averages of temperature, rainfall and sunshine are given in table V.4, page
20. 1963 was characterised by exceptionally low temperatures in the months of January
and February; over the whole country the month of January 1963 was the coldest since
1795. Rainfall was also low in the first two months—the total for the year was 12 per cent,
below the average. Sunshine was noticeably deficient in the holiday months of August and
September.
B
13