[Report 1955] / Medical Officer of Health, Watford U.D.C. / Borough.

  • Watford (England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1955
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1955] / Medical Officer of Health, Watford U.D.C. / Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    29/42 (page 27)
    ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION, There are no Industrial processes In VJatford which are the cause of najor atmospheric pollution. There are, hoy/ever, many Industrial boiler plants iwhich. In furtherance of the clean air policy, must be kept under close observation, 357 observations were made by the sanitary Inspectors during the year In connection v/Ith emissions of smoke and noxious fum.es. In three more factories conversions have been made to bum fuel oil Instead of coal. The unvarying quality of this fuel coupled vdth the automatic controls ncvi fitted to most nev/ Installa-* tions eliminate many of the human errors vfhich from time to time cause smoke nuisances. Smoke abatement and boiler house efficiency are matters of intimate relation¬ ship and this Is again demonstrated by the outcome of the measures which v/ere adopted to abate three Statutory smoke nuisances vfhich ?/ere reported to the Council during 1955:- 1, A serious emission of smuts and grit from the Lancashire boilers at a sweet factory was not mlti^ted by the overhaul of the grit arrester. Day and night observations established that the nuisance vas nalnly caused v;hilst the fires were banked at night (v/hen the grit arrester and fan draught y;ere out of action). Steps were taken to abate the nuisance by Improving the combustion efficiency during the night operation of the boilers. This has led to a saving In fuel of some 7%» 2, Black smoke was being emitted from the chimney of a factory y/here ty;o Cochran multitubular boilers with underfeed stokers had recently been Installed, It v/as found that this nuisance y/as caused by the use of urisultable strongly caking coal. Vlhen a more suitable fuel y/as obtained the nuisance vas abated and the heat demand could easily be met by one boiler Instead of the tv/o - with no mean saving In fuel, 3, It Is very difficult to burn bituminous coal smokelessly in a vertical boiler. At one factory where this was attempted a serious smoke nuisance vras being caused. This vas alleviated by burning coke Instead of coal and a considerable saving in fuel costs resulted, EMISSION OF FUIES FROM A GLASS FACTORY, The emission of hydrofluoric acid fumes from, a glass factory Ims continued to cause a nuisance. The fum.e vashing plant has been overlauled and the fume stack Improved but these worlcs have not been completely successful. The Public Analyst advised the use of soda ash in the scrubber for vashing the gases before they are em.Itted from the chimney. Representations to this effect vrere made to the Ihnagement of the factory vriio have agreed to Instal the necessary plant. MISCELLANEOUS ri>DUSTRIAL NOISE NUISANCES. The Watford Corporation Act, 1937 provides that under certain circumstances a noise nuisance shall be liable to be dealt with as a statutory nuisance under the Public Health Act, 1936,