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CLEAN AIR ACT, 1956
On the 7th February, 1958, The provisions of the Clean Air Act
relating to industrial smoke came into operation. Section 1 of the
Act prohibits the emission of dark smoke from the chimney of any
building for more than the periods specified by the Minister of
Housing and Local Government.
These periods were specified in Regulations which came into
force on 1st June, 1958. Under these Regulations dark smoke may
not be emitted from a chimney for more than 10 minutes in the
aggregate in any period of 8 hours with extensions of the period for
soot blowing or for chimneys serving more than one furnace. The
emission of dark smoke for more than four minutes continuously or
of black smoke for more than 2 minutes in the aggregate in any
period of 30 minutes is prohibited.
A special circular was sent to all factory occupiers concerned,
which was later followed by a visit to offer advice.
It is unlikely that any chimney will be kept under observation
for 8 hours and therefore activities will mainly be confined to controlling
continuous emissions of dark smoke and emissions of black
smoke.
Under Section 4 of the Act the Minister may, by Regulation,
require the provision of smoke indicating and recording instruments.
No regulation have yet been made but it is to be hoped that now
smoke instruments are readily available, the Minister will use the
power available to him and thus enable checks of smoke emitted
throughout the whole of each day and night, to be made by reference
to the records.
Some boiler users have installed smoke indicating and recording
instruments in order to give an indication to the operator of excessive
smoke emitted. These have proved useful in preventing contraventions
of the Clean Air Act.
Section 16 deals with smoke other than that for dwelling houses
or dark smoke from other chimneys. If it is a nuisance to the inhabitants
of the neighbourhood it may be dealt with as a statutory
nuisance under the Public Health Act.
This would cover such things as bonfires, but there may be
difficulty in establishing that a particular occurrence is a nuisance to
the Habitants of the neighbourhood.
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