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Hokitika Guardian, 11 April 1931, Page 8

IN front of the fire. “Tlnnk of it. We build nil open vent and light a fire within it. The result is a strong upward draught of hot air and so a strong inward draught of cold, dust-laden air. Every door and window contributes to this inward draught, and the air coining from all these flows towards the fireplace to replace the air going up the chimney. The result is that anybo ?.v sitting beside the fire is sitting at the point where the dust-laden currents oT cold air meet,” writes t lie Medical Correspondent of the “Times Trade and Engineering Supplement.” “The few feet round the average fireplace contain .threfore, the dustiest air in the room. This is the air most people breathe during that period of the year when they are least well able to tolerate dust. We have always blamed the cold. Rut it is well known that during the War, th<> armies in the trenches suffered vry little from winter ailments. They did not s>t at the open months of chimneys.”