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Smoke Abatement.
During the year the Public Health Inspectors made 211 visits to industrial premises
concerning smoke emission, and to give advice on the working of the installations. The
managements wore obviously aware of the increased interest in clean air, and general improvements
have resulted. There is, however, still room for considerable improvement, which will
no doubt follow when supplies of smokeless fuel are more readily available and obsolete plants
are modernised in accordance with the provisions of the new Act.
Among the large industrial firms in Custom House and Silvertown it is gratifying to
note that many continue to make use of the facilities available at the Fuel Research Station,
Greenwich, for promoting smoke abatement. There has been marked improvement by firms acting
on the advice given by the Research Station.
On the other hand, some firms still experience difficulty in recruiting suitable
stokers, particularly in the smaller plants which are hand-fired. This is due largely to
full employment and the failure on the part of some firms to recognize a stoker as a skilled
craftsman.
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Clean Air Act, 1956.
The Act, which received Royal Assent on 5th July 1956, seeks to strengthen public
control over air pollution. Its explanatory memorandum indicates its four main purposes.
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(i) to prohibit the emission of dark smoke from chimneys, railway engines and vessels,
subject to certain qualifications.
(ii) to prohibit the installation of new industrial furnaces unless they are capable, so
far as practicable, of being operated without emitting smoke.
(iii) to require that the emission of grit and dust from existing industrial furnaces shall
be minimised and that new industrial furnaces burning pulverised fuel or large
quantities of other solid fuel shall be provided with grit arresting equipment.
(iv) to empower local authorities by order, subject to confirmation by the Minister
concerned, to declare "smoke control areas", in which the emission of smoke from
chimneys will constitute an offence.
It is not practicable to quote the provisions of all the sections of the Act,
which incidentally do not come into force until the appointed day; the following is, however,
a resume of the more important sections affecting the work of the Department.
Section 1, Prohibition of Dark Smoke from Chimneys.
This section, which prohibits the emission of dark smoke from a chimney of any
building, applies to locomotives, which must incorporate "any practicable means there may
be for minimising the emission of smoke". Otherwise nothing in the Act applies to a railway
locomotive. Hie elimination of railway,smoke depends finally on electrification and the
greater use of diesel oil. Legislation is unlikely to expedite it owing to the great cost
and the technical details involved.
The section appears to allow defences of too wide a character to be made to the
offence of emitting dark smoke. The object of the section is clearly to avoid prosecution
°? people who inadvertently allow the offence to occur, or those who are unable to obtain
the requisite fuel.
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