A Threat to London's Health.
It is not
surprising that strong protests have been made in influential quarters against the proposal to erect at Battersea one of a chain of super-power stations,to be set up all over the
country. In these utilitarian days it is probably no use being
squeamish about the addition of six chimneys, 255 feet high, to
the less popular sights of our city; but the addition of two or
three hundred tons of sulphur fumes to its atmosphere every week
is in a category that the most hardened materialist cannot but
regard as disturbing. And, apart from the cost in health, it
would accelerate the decay and besmirching of public buildings
and parks in the City and West End-by the agency of the
prevailing south-west winds-thus entailing heavy expense to the ratepayers for extra
cleaning and repair work.
It appears, moreover, that at present no
satisfactory method of eliminating these
fumes from furnace gases exists, and that residents in the vicinity of power stations still complain bitterly
of the quantity of smoke, dust and grit emitted. It is worth
while recalling here
that no charge of air-pollution can be brought against the gas industry; the general use of gas in home and
factory, on the other hand, would almost entirely put an end to
the smoke evil.
We can only hope
it will be realised that the well-being of
the public and the maintenance of the amenities they at present
enjoy are objects even more worth striving for than the superficially more practical ones the promoters of this scheme have in
mind.
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Copartnership Journal South Metropolitan Gas Company June 1929
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165
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