London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Richmond upon Thames 1970
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Richmond upon Thames]
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There are now 12,902 acres including 62,273 premises subject to Smoke Control
Orders. This represents 96% of the area of the Borough and 91% of the premises.
During the year the following Orders were made :
| Order. | Acreage. | Number of Dwellings | Number of Other Premises |
|---|---|---|---|
| Twickenham No. 10 | 538 | 5778 | 600 |
| Twickenham No. 11 | 14.6 | 1 | 3 |
Twickenham No. 10 will become operational in July 1972 and Twickenham No.
11 will be in operation on 1st June, 1971. In making these Orders the Council finalised
their programme of creating Smoke Control areas to cover the whole of the Borough.
The first Area was, in fact, made in November 1959. Over the years the level of smoke
pollution has been progressively reduced to that generally experienced in rural
communities.
This improvement is illustrated by the amounts of smoke measured at certain
points in the Smoke Control areas.
There are now five stations measuring smoke and sulphur dioxide within the
Borough (one at each of the following locations — Barnes, Hampton, Teddington, Kew
and Whitton). Three of these stations are operated by the Health Department and the
other two by Central Government Departments.
The following table gives processed daily average figures over the year, so far available for eight years up to March, 1970.
| Year Ended March | STATION (results in microgrammes per cubic metre) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Twickenham No. 3 | Twickenham No. 4 | Barnes No. 1 | ||||
| Smoke | SO2 | Smoke | S02 | Smoke | S02 | |
| 1963 | 98 | 181 | 98 | 187 | – | – |
| 1964 | 98 | 151 | 89 | 164 | 96 | 106 |
| 1965 | 74 | 140 | 67 | 139 | 77 | 120 |
| 1966 | 53 | 111 | 56 | 115 | 57 | 102 |
| 1967 | 33 | 100 | 40 | 105 | 48 | 119 |
| 1968 | 35 | 106 | 42 | 110 | 49 | 122 |
| 1969 | 37 | 103 | 45 | 116 | 41 | 105 |
| 1970 | 36 | 89 | 43 | 102 | 34 | 94 |
In addition to illustrating the reduction in smoke levels of up to two-thirds, due
mainly to the absence of household smoke at ground level, these figures also demonstrate
the poor reduction in levels of S02. It has been suggested that this phenomenon is due
to the greater use of oil-fired central heating; should this be so, the increasing use of
natural gas will produce a marked reduction in the levels of S02 in the coming years.
Throughout the year threats of a shortage of fuel and an actual shortage were
dominating factors. During the first few months Coalite was in short supply and at
one period two merchants stated that they were completely out of stock. Thisi state of
aifairs fortunately only lasted a few days. Another merchant was assured by the factor
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