Britain’s Drive Against “Smog”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 48, 27 February 1939, Page 3

Britain’s Drive Against “Smog”

LONDON—Britain as a whole—and in particular—has opened a campaign against folk and smog. Yes, folk and smog. For this statement is no spoonerism, and to speak of a campaign against smoke and fog might be equally correct but it would not be half as explicit. Not so explicit because “smog” is a new word, coined by the National Smoke Abatement Society to signify fog caused by dirty smoke. And the folk of the “folk and smog” are the ordinary householders who bum ordinary coal. Smog Must Go At the opening of this campaign to banish smoke-fog (or smog) the householder was declared “Public Enemy Number One,” for G 8 per cent of smo.; (or smoke-fog) is caused by the dark plumes of chemical-charged coal-smoke (not to be confused with coke) which rise from household chimney-pots. A “Clear the Air” exhibition has been opened in London, to impress upon ordinary citizens the fact that chimneypot smoke causes more damage every year in England than industrail smoke. Out of a total bill of £50,000,000 annually, charged to dirty smoke, domestic fires are held responsible for as much as £30,000,000. This “Clear the Air” exhibition is to tour the country, going from town to town on its absorbing mission. It is hoped that the public will absorb

sufficient knowledge from its statistice to make legislation unnecessary. But the Smoke Abatement Society looks forward to a national law prohibiting the burning of soft coal and causing everyone to burn smokeless fuel, or else to use gas or electricity. Ban on Soft Coal In Manchester, burning of soft coal by industrial firms in the central area is already forbidden. In. London, Air Herbert Alorrison, chairman of the London County Council, is considering introducing legislation to transform London into a smokless city. The coal industry is conducting research with the object of devising an open grate which would burn soft coal and yet be smokeless. Until these schemes come to fruition, the National Smoke Abatement Society is to continue and intensify its campaign against the every-day folk who cause every-day smog (or smoke fog), causing 240 tons of soot to fall on every square mile of London each year, eating into Government buildings at an j annual cost of £3,000,000. All those who, fumbling blindly through a London fog, have ever mistakenly tried to post a letter through the mouth of a deceptively portly bystander, will wish the antismog (or smoke-fog) campaigners a cress (or clear success).