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pollution, especially during severe "smogs", in order to determine the peak
concentrations reached. This will greatly assist our further investigation.
Local authorities can do most valuable service in this respect.
The Householder, Householders in large towns who are dependent on solid
fuel and who normally burn coal should, before each winter, lay in a stock of,
say, 1 cwt. of coke or other smokeless fuel for use during periods of persistent
fog. A mixture of coke and coal will burn reasonably well and will
greatly reduce smoke.
Instructions to the general public when persistent fog is forecast.
Householders who can use only coal should take special care not to make more
smoke than can be helped; fires should not be banked at night.
Householders who can use smokeless fuels should confine themselves to
those fuels during periods of persistent fog. A mixture of coal and coke, as
already mentioned, will effect some improvement.
Rubbish should not be burned, nor bonfires lit, while the fog lasts.
The general public should refrain from bringing motor cars into densely
populated centres during a serious fog warning. In serious fog drivers of
all motor vehicles should switch off engines whenever traffic is stationary,
even temporarily.
Factories, commercial buildings, hotels, institutions, etc., should
immediately put into effect action to watch and control all stoking of furnaces,
and to prevent smoke.
Steps for mitigating the effects of "smog", Less "smog" will find its
way indoors, and rooms will be kept warmer, if draughts can be prevented.
Elderly people and those suffering from chronic chest and heart conditions,
would be well advised to keep indoors and to rest as much as they can
if the fog is very thick. Those who must go out will find that a closelyfitting
simple gauze mask, or a woollen scarf wrapped round the mouth and nose,
will give some relief, by filtering out some at least of the solid contents of
the "smog".
At the April, 1954, meeting of the Public Health Committee I submitted
the following report:-
" SMOKE ABATEMENT AND AIR POLLUTION
In accordance with the instructions of the Committee at its meeting on
the 13th January. 1954, I submit a report on the general problem of smoke
abatement in this Borough, with special reference to the recommendations set
out in the communications recently received from the Metropolitan Boroughs'
Standing Joint Committee and the Preliminary Report of the Beaver Committee.
STATUTORY POWERS, The legal powers of a Metropolitan Borough in dealing with
this problem are as follows:-
PUBLIC HEALTH (LONDON) ACT, 1936„ SECTION 137 (1) enacts:
Where any premises used for any trade, business, process or manufacture
causing effluvia, are certified to a sanitary authority by a district medical
officer of health, or by any two legally qualified medical practitioners, or
by any ten inhabitants of the district of the authority, to be a nuisance or
injurious or dangerous to the health of any of the inhabitants of the district
(whether the premises are situate in or outside the district or the county),
the authority shall make a complaint to a Petty Sessional Court within whose
jurisdiction the premises are situate, and if it appears to the Court that
the trade, business, process or manufacture carried on by the respondent is a
nuisance, or causes effluvia which are a nuisance or injurious or dangerous to
the health of any of the inhabitants, then, unless it is shown that the respondent
has used the best practicable means for abating the nuisance or preventing
or counteracting the effluvia, the person so offending shall, if he is
the owner or occupier of the premises, or a foreman or other person employed