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50
SMOKE ABATEMENT AND AIR POLLUTION
Committee on Air Pollution. In my report for 1953 I referred to the Committee
which, following the very severe fog conditions experienced in December, 1952,
was set up by Central Government under the Chairmanship of Sir Hugh Beaver,
M.Inst.C.E., M.I.Chem.E. , with the following terms of reference: -
"To examine the nature, causes and effects of air pollution and the efficacy
of present preventive measures; to consider what further preventive
measures are practicable; and to make recommendations."
The final Report of the Beaver Committee was published in November, 1954,
and I would particularly draw attention to the following extracts from the
introduction and other parts of the Report.
"In presenting this Report we wish to state our emphatic belief that air
pollution on the scale with which we are familiar in this country today is a
social and economic evil which should no longer be tolerated, and that it needs
to be combated with the same conviction and energy as were applied one hundred
years ago in securing pure water. We are convinced that given the will it can
be prevented. To do this will require a national effort and will entail costs
and sacrifices; the recommendations made in this Report will involve expenditure
by the Government, local authorities, industry and householders alike.
But we are confident that our proposals, if carried out, will secure happier
and more healthy living conditions for millions of people, and that on all
counts the cost of the cure will be far less than the national loss in allowing
the evil to continue.
We are satisfied that the most serious immediate problem to be tackled is
visible pollution by smoke, grit and dust, and we have been able to make definite
recommendations in regard to these. We must emphasise that the problem
is not one which can be solved overnight. Real improvement can be secured
only by a continuous programme urgently and insistently carried out over a
number of years. The objective of our recommendations is that by the end of
ten to fifteen years the total smoke in all heavily populated areas would be
reduced by something of the order of 80 per cent. This would mean a degree of
freedom from air pollution which many parts of the country have not known for
more than a century. With regard to gaseous pollution, there is not yet the
knowledge to deal effectively with the whole problem; but we have made a
number of recommendations for preventive action and have indicated the directions
in which ultimate solutions may be found.
It is basic to all our recommendations that at the outset it should be
made the declared national policy to secure clean air, and that a statement to
this effect should find expression in the new legislation the 'Clean Air Act'
- which we are recommending.
The Effects on Health. Whilst scientific evidence about the effects of air
pollution on human health is incomplete, enough is known to make it abundantly
clear that it is injurious to both physical and mental health, It fosters
disease and can cause death.
The effects of the London fog of December, 1952, which resulted in the
deaths of some 4,000 people, have been the subject of a recently published
report by an expert committee appointed by the Minister of Health, Our Report
deals rather with the consequences of the continuing air pollution that persists
year in and year out over wide areas of the country. There is a clear
association between pollution and the incidence of bronchitis and other respiratory
diseases. Statistics show that every year the death rate from
bronchitis in England and Wales is much higher than in other European countries
for which reliable figures are available. The following table shows comparative
death rates from bronchitis for England and Wales and the Scandinavian
countries: