London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

View report page

Tottenham 1958

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Tottenham]

This page requires JavaScript

29
Section 19 This section brings railway engines within the provisions of
section 1.
Section 20 Applies sections 1 and 2 to ships.
Section 23 Makes provision for dealing with Crown premises.
The Minister has exercised his power to make regulations dealing with
smoke and these also came into operation on 1st June, 1958.
The regulations state that no offence is committed if dark smoke is
emitted for less than 10 minutes in the aggregate in an 8 hour period. The
10 minute period is increased according to the number of furnaces, but
continuous emission of dark smoke over 4 minutes or black smoke for 2 minutes,
in any period of & hour, is an offence
In my view, the most that can be said of these regulations is that they
provide a standard, but not a very stringent one.
To succeed in taking action against the chimney that smokes "little and
often" it will be necessary to keep a continuous observation for 8 hours.
Local Action under the Clean Air Act
Members were informed in my annual report for 1957 that a detailed survey
of the proposed Smoke Control Area was in progress. This survey was duly
completed and an Order made by the Council was subsequently confirmed by the
Minister.
The survey covered an area of approximately 180 acres with 2,104 buildings
the Order comes into operation on 1st September, 1959.
A booklet prepared in the department, containing the relevant information
for intending applicants, was circulated to all the houses affected by the
Order.
To stimulate interest in the area and to provide information and guidance,
in collaboration with the Coal Utilisation Council, an exhibition hut was
erected in the garden fronting on Page Green Terrace. The hut, which had a
number of approved appliances under fire, was to be on site for 4 months.
Industrial Air Pollution
Further difficulties arose during the year regarding a laundry in South
Tottenham. After repeated representations and meetings a second chain grate
was installed. As a further step to mitigating the nuisance an electricity
sub-station has been erected on the site and it is the Management's intention
to take a supply into the laundry and so reduce the demand on the boiler plant.