Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

There are other, and in our view more serious, evil effects from smoke than “the permanent blackening of foliage and tree trunks, brickwork and masonry, fabrics and woodwork.” The Leeds Committee does not seem to us to attach quite enough importance to the appalling and devastating results of smoke upon the child population: “The amount of daylight obscured by the smoke cloud is readily estimated by a simple chemical method and the figures (which give the amount of iodine liberated during 24 hours from an acid solution of potassium iodide) serve to show that on some days half the total daylight is lost in the industrial and central parts of Leeds.” The Leeds Committee should investigate some of the modern facts and figures as to the effect of the lack of sunlight on such diseases as rickets, for example. For all they have to say on the appalling disclosure that half the daylight is cut off from their citizens is this “The remarkable effects achieved in tuberculosis and other diseases by treatment with artificial light and especially ultraviolet rays (which are almost completely cut off by a smoke-laden atmosphere) has added a new and powerful argument for removing the pall of smoke from towns.” What does it matter that the Town Hall is grimy as compared to the fact that hundreds of twisted, broken, hobbling cripples are wandering about their streets? And, fortunately, it is in a large measure the industrial smoke which has cut off that fifty per cent, of daylight, the absence of which has stunted these wretches. We say fortunately, for as the pamphlet makes abundantly clear, the great bulk of industrial smoke could he “abated” to-morrow if only the matter was taken vigorously in hand. And undoubtedly the citizens of Leeds show signs that they are going to act.

Comment

Comment

A cynic might suggest that the council was more interested in smoke damage to buildings than people because councillors and senior officials tended not to live in the worst affected areas.

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Original

We have received from the Leeds Corporation a most interesting little booklet bearing this title. It seems that the citizens of Leeds, meeting together eighteen months ago to consider how they could best celebrate the tercentenary of the granting of a charter to their borough, came to the practical and original conclusion that the best thing they could do was to appoint a “Clean Air Committee,” which should report on how best the atmosphere of the city could be purified. The present book is the result of that Committee’s labours. It proves that there is a strong and growing mass of public opinion in the industrial centres themselves which is beginning to demand firm action in this matter.

This is the general case as set out by the citizens of Leeds:

It is not generally realized that every grown person draws into his lungs daily about 30 to 35 lbs. of air, or about six times the weight of the liquid and solid food required to nourish his body. Whilst the local authority is scrupulously careful that by constant inspection and adequate penalties his food is free from adulteration, it has long been indifferent to the pollution of the sir he breathes. Surely on grounds of health alone we have a right to look to our Minister of Health and our sanitary authority to provide pure air. At the same time it must be admitted that this indifference is shared by the general public; for our attitude of unconcern towards our smoke polluted atmosphere is only equalled by the apathy we display towards our smoke blackened buildings and our squalid and dirty surroundings. Lord Newton, in his recent address in Leeds during ‘Health Week,’ stated with much truth ‘that, whereas we pride ourselves upon being the most cleanly people personally in the civilized world, there are certain parts of the country which are dirtier than anything that can be shown in any other country of Europe.’

And this is their conclusion:-

We believe that with a little effort and good will on the part of the citizen in adopting our recommendations, and enhanced facilities by the provision of cheap smokeless fuel combined with a firmer attitude towards defaulters on the part of the local authority, smoke in Leeds, if not entirely suppressed, might be reduced to an almost insignificant amount.

Anyone who has ever been to Leeds must know how great a change this would be! The booklet goes on to a careful analysis of the nature and origins of smoke. The first thing which they make clear is the relatively high importance of domestic smoke, as against industrial. The Report makes this clear by the following argument:-

.. about a quarter of the total weight of domestic soot consists of tar, whereas in that from the boiler chimney it is almost negligible. The reason why domestic soot is so deleterious is obvious. Its tarry content renders it adhesive, and the permanent blackening of foliage and tree trunks, brickwork and masonry, fabrics and woodwork, and, in short, everything it touches is readily explained. Tar, as we know, is not removable by rain, and the steadily increasing discoloration of buildings and evergreens in and near towns is, therefore, mainly due to domestic smoke.

In a way this seems to be bad news, for undoubtedly domestic smoke is more difficult to deal with than industrial smoke. But after all there are other, and in our view more serious, evil effects from smoke than “the permanent blackening of foliage and tree trunks, brickwork and masonry, fabrics and woodwork.” Indeed, the Leeds Committee does not seem to us to attach quite enough importance to the appalling and devastating results of smoke upon the child population:-

The amount of daylight obscured by the smoke cloud is readily estimated by a simple chemical method and the figures (which give the amount of iodine liberated during 24 hours from an acid solution of potassium iodide) serve to show that on some days half the total daylight is lost in the industrial and central parts of Leeds.

The Leeds Committee should investigate some of the modern facts and figures as to the effect of the lack of sunlight on such diseases as rickets, for example. For all they have to say on the appalling disclosure that half the daylight is cut off from their citizens is this:-

The remarkable effects achieved in tuberculosis and other diseases by treatment with artificial light and especially ultra-violet rays (which are almost completely cut off by a smoke-laden atmosphere) has added a new and powerful argument for removing the pall of smoke from towns.

What does it matter that the Town Hall is grimy as compared to the fact that hundreds of twisted, broken, hobbling cripples are wandering about their streets? And, fortunately, it is in a large measure the industrial smoke which has cut off that fifty per cent, of daylight, the absence of which has stunted these wretches. We say fortunately, for as the pamphlet makes abundantly clear, the great bulk of industrial smoke could he “abated” to-morrow if only the matter was taken vigorously in hand. And undoubtedly the citizens of Leeds show signs that they are going to act. At the end of the pamphlet is printed a summary of the measures recommended:-

Your Committee advocate in the case of-

• Private Houses.
• Hotels.
• Institutions.
  • Cooking by gas or electricity.
  • Water Heating by Coke, supplemented for occasional use by gas or electricity.
  • General Heating. Where central heating is used, coke boilers; where fireplaces are used, the substitution, as far as practicable, of coal by coke.
• Factories.
  • Precautions, if necessary under legal pressure, for the prevention of excessive smoke:
    1. By effective installation and suitable appliances.
    2. By the use of proper care on the part of the firemen that the apparatus is employed to the best advantage.
• Generally.
  • That Public Opinion be directed to the matter, so that the community may appreciate:
    1. That a great improvement can be made.
    2. That such an improvement will do much to remove one of the worst evils of modern English city life.

If vigorous action is taken along these lines Leeds may show the way to the rest of England in a social reform which is second to none in importance.

1144 words.

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• Air pollution (11) ·
• Child (17) ·
• Coal (16) ·
• Coke (fuel) (5) ·
• Cripple (1) ·
• Deformity (1) ·
• Environmental movement (1) ·
• Leeds City Council (32) ·
• Leeds Town Hall (15) ·
• 📌Leeds (235) ·
• Pollution (10) ·
• Preventive healthcare (2) ·
• Public health (7) ·
• Rickets (2) ·
• Smoke (4) ·
• Smokeless fuel (2) ·
• Solid fuel (1) ·
• Sulfur dioxide (1) ·
• Sun (3) ·
• Sunlight (1) ·
• Tuberculosis (4) ·
• Ultraviolet (1) ·
• Vitamin D deficiency (1) ·
• Vitamin D (1) ·

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