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
Hillingdon 1969
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hillingdon]
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98
Environmental Health
Smoke Control Areas
It will unfortunately be necessary to further restrict the programme owing to the acute shortage of smokeless fuels. The position at the end of the year is set out in the following table:—
| Number of Orders | Acres | Domestic Dwellings | Other Premises | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local Authority | Private | ||||
| In operation at 31.12.68 | 41 | 12,671 | 8,577 | 21,340 | 2,275 |
| Brought into operation in 1969 | 2 | 1,519 | 219 | 2,216 | 108 |
| Orders confirmed but not yet operative | – | – | – | – | – |
| Orders made but not yet confirmed | 1 | 380 | 575 | 1,111 | 54 |
Dark Smoke (Permitted Period Regulations, 1958)
These Regulations lay down the maximum length of time that dark or black smoke may be
emitted from a chimney, other than a domestic chimney, in any given time. 137 observations were
made of industrial chimneys and no contravention of the Regulations were noted.
Notification of the Intention to install furnaces
During 1969, 101 notifications of intention to install furances of a capacity of 55,000 or more
British Thermal Units per hour were received. Of these 35 were gas fired; 53 oil fired using an oil
fuel with a lower sulphur content than coal, 4 oil fired with a high sulphur content fuel oil; 3 were
fired with kerosene and 5 with butane, both of which are sulphur free, and one was an incinerator.
Industrial Bonfires: Chimney Heights: Grit and Dust from furnaces:
Clean Air Acts/Alkali, etc., Works Regulations Act, 1906 and Sale of
unauthorised fuel in smoke control areas
The Clean Air Act, 1968 came into operation during 1969 and amended previous legislation with
particular reference to the matters listed above. The amended legislation and Regulations thereunder
are certainly no great improvement as far as this Borough is concerned, and could be the reverse.
The provisions relating to Industrial bonfires are similar to those under the Middlesex County Council
Act, 1961. There are differences in that it is no longer necessary to actually compare the smoke to a
Ringlemann Chart to ascertain its density, but there are also exemptions which did not previously
exist.
The control of chimney heights under the 1956 Act did not apply to offices, residences and shops,
but some control was introduced under the Building Regulations Act, 1965. The control applied
only to new chimneys, and a new furnace could be fitted to an existing chimney without approval
to the chimney height. The 1968 Act extends the control to all premises and includes alterations to
existing furnaces but removes the control unless the furnace exceeds a capacity of 1,250,000 British
Thermal Units per hour. In this area, mainly with light industry, the tendency has been to install
warm air heating in factories, this for example has happened on the Highbridge and Denbridge
Industrial Estates at Uxbridge, the Pump Lane Estate at Hayes, the Stockley development at West
Drayton, and the Council's Depot at Harlington Road. The furnaces fitted are between 300,000 to
800,000 Btu/hr. The total for an industrial estate could be several million Btu/hr. but the height of
the chimneys is no longer controlled.