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100
ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION.
Smoke Abatement.
(i) Inspections by Sanitary Inspectors.
Some 89 observations were made of the quantities of smoke
emitted from chimneys of industrial and commercial premises.
Letters were sent to the management of a number of business
undertakings regarding excessive smoke and grit emission, but no
statutory nuisance was established within the terms of the Public
Health Act, 1936.
(II) Report of the Committee on National Policy for
the use of Fuel and Power Resources.
The following is an extract from a special report submitted to
the Public Health Committee by the Senior Sanitary Inspector in
March, 1953 :—
In July 1951 the Ministry of Fuel and Power appointed, under
the chairmanship of Viscount Ridley, C.B.E., a Committee on
National Fuel Policy to consider whether any further steps could
be taken to promote the best use of the nation's fuel and power
resources having regard to growing demands and in the light of
technical developments.
The Report is an informative document and brings to light
differences of opinion held by the National Coal Board, the British
Electricity Authority and the Gas Council.
The National Coal Board state in their evidence that the use
of electricity for ordinary heating purposes, for 6pace heating, water
heating or cooking, is incompatible with the national interest;
and that, if the load were taken by coal (either burnt raw or after
conversion into coke and gas) not only would the nation 6ave
seven million tons of raw coal, but load-shedding would end and the
electricity supply industry would be able to meet any likely
expansion in the demand for electricity for purposes of light and
power without using more coal than at present. The Coal Board
claims that unless the heating load now carried by electricity is
removed coal will become scarcer still, that there will be an everincreasing
use of the wrong fuels for heating purposes, and that the
efficiency of coal utilisation will decline. Their remedy is the
expansion of the carbonisation industry, the production of more
coke (which in its turn would force consumers to abandon inefficient
grates and replace with new smokeless appliances) and the expansion
of bricquetting.