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staff exercising control and supervision only. No charges were made for the treatment of
private dwellings.
Regular sewer treatments as recommended by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries
were carried out.
ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION
The measurement of atmospheric pollution was continued throughout the year at
three sites in the Borough. At Jubilee Gardens in the north, at the Recreation Ground in
the south, measurements were taken by the lead peroxide method which provides a relative
measure of the average amount of sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere from month to month.
At Hortus Cemetery, also in the southern part of the Borough, measurement of solids
deposited from the air were carried out by means of a deposit gauge. The results are
tabulated below, and on Graphs D and E the seasonal variation can be seen. It will be noted
that the peak for sulphur pollution occurs during the winter months and that it falls to a very
low level during the months of July and August; since in general industrial plants continue
to function with less seasonal variation in fuel consumption than does the average home,
these figures suggest that the greater part of the local air pollution by sulphur dioxide comes
from the burning of domestic fires.
Graph E which gives pictorial results by the deposit gauge method shows a fairly even
distribution of deposit of sulphur compounds throughout the year and indicates that there is a
constant and fairly heavy pollution of the atmosphere with dust and grit, although the figure
compares very favourably with the rest of London and the industrial towns of the Midlands
and the North.
Graph F is a representation of the comparative figures for Southall, Central London, a
Northern industrial area, and Godalming, Surrey, which constantly returns the best figures
throughout the year.
There is an overall improvement on the figures resulting from both methods of estimation
over those of 1950. The improvement on the sulphur pollution figures was fairly
constant throughout the year.
Particular sources of possible smoke nuisance were kept under observation throughout
the year, and abatement of pollution obtained by the issuing of instructions on efficient
stoking of boilers and in two cases by the installation of new boilers.