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PREVENTION OF ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION
As a result of the disastrous London fog in December, 1952,
this subject has been well to the fore during the year under report.
There has been a noticeable increase in public interest and conditions
which were, until recently, accepted without comment are now made
the subject of complaint. Contact has been maintained with
womens' organisations and other local bodies in an effort to
stimulate this interest and to focus attention on the part played in
air pollution by domestic fires. The sale of grates capable of
burning smokeless fuels has continued at a high level and all Council
houses built during the year have been equipped with this type of
grate. If the public could be induced to burn nothing but smokeless
fuels in these grates a considerable improvement in the state of the
atmosphere would result. A deterrent to the increased use of
smokeless fuels is their high cost particularly those which are produced
by low temperature carbonisation. This is a matter which
should receive attention in the highest quarters if the smoke
abatement movement is to make further progress.
Local industry has been very co-operative and it has not been
necessary to take any proceedings for contravention of the Smoke
Byelaws i.e. the emission of black smoke for more than two minutes
in a half-hour period. At the end of the year one firm which has,
in the past, received a lot of attention from the Sanitary Inspectors
was installing an additional boiler to avoid the over-loading (with
consequent smoke production) of the existing plant which sometimes
occurs.
One stand at the Hygiene Exhibition, described elsewhere in
this report, was set out with exhibits loaned from the National
Smoke Abatement Society, and proved to be of considerable interest.
DRAINAGE
At the end of the year there were seventy-one pail closets and
seventy-six cesspools in the district. Action under Section 47 of
the Public Health Act for the replacement of pail closets by water
closets is practicable in only twelve cases and these will be dealt
with as soon as possible. Similarly, everything possible will be
done to bring about the abolition of the twenty-two cesspools
which are situated within a reasonable distance of a public sewer.
As some of them are in good condition and do not give rise to any
nuisance it is a matter for persuasion rather than compulsion. Pail
closets and cesspools are emptied regularly by the Engineer &
Surveyor's Department.
The practice of clearing stopped drains free of charge has been
continued and no snags or difficulties have arisen in connection with
this work. The advantages, however, are, from the public health
point of view, incalculable. The service of large numbers of notices
is avoided, and, of more importance, serious nuisances are abated
within an hour or two of being reported instead of continuing,
pending the expiry of the time limit of a Statutory Notice.
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