In the final part of her research into Edinburgh's fight for clean air, LHSA Archivist Louise looks into legislation against pollution and changes in treatment for infectious diseases....
My last blog ended with a section of the 1924 report from Edinburgh's Medical Officer of Health, who was in charge of the public health of the city. This short section was the first real acknowledgement I found from the authorities that air pollution could be a serious problem for Edinburgh.
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| Section from the 1924 report from Edinburgh Medical Officer of Health (LHB16/2/25) |
The Sanitary Department devoted a short section to “Pollution of the Air” for the first time, inside which there was a call for the “abolition of the smoke cloud all over the city” that obscured natural light.. The next year’s report complained that “the smoky atmosphere… combined with the loss of sunshine and daylight, is one of the causes of the inferiority of the physique of city dwellers.” It was also observed that daffodils had a life of seven days in the city centre Princes Street Gardens as compared to three weeks on suburban Bruntsfield Links. You can feel the frustration of the inspectors coming off the page, as they outlined a situation that they had little power to do anything about.
In
1926, the Public Health (Smoke Abatement) Act was passed following pressure
from groups like the Coal Smoke Abatement Society. This focused on the
reduction of industrial – though not domestic - smoke and gave local
authorities enforcement powers against excessive pollution.
The
Sanitary Department was active on a number of fronts, and they outlined their
work in a new “Smoke Abatement” section of the reports. Their reports included information on:
1.Surveys
of plant and boilers in factories to see they operated properly, because
pollution was caused by fuel not burning through. They also encouraged factory
owners to invest in more efficient machinery and end manual stoking (so air
intake could be controlled), to switch to burning smokeless fuel like coke, and
to build chimneys higher to send smoke well above houses. Public health staff
even inspected factories and boilerhouses in person – the 1929 Medical Officer
of Health report estimated that 300 of these visits occurred every month.
The end of manual stoking controlled air intake and fuel used to increase efficiency and reduce unnecessary smoke (LHB16/2/57).
2. The
department ran evening classes for industrial workers and engineers at a city
college, covering subjects like fuel economy, smoke abatement and furnace
management.
3. Although
Edinburgh didn’t have as much heavy industry as Glasgow, urban premises like
shops, banks, and offices still needed to be heated: inner city pollution from
them was a frequent cause of public complaints. Inspectors visited to advise
and recommend changes, like alternatives to coal, including switching heating
to gas.
4. A busy
city centre also meant transport hubs, and sanitary inspectors monitored
pollution from railway stations and works, and steam transport on the roads.
Interventions in the latter, such as recommending better fuel, was reported to
have decreased pollution around Edinburgh’s main train station and the public
gardens next to it.
5. Finally,
gauges were set up in different parts of the city to measure rainfall and
soluble and insoluble matter. The department also measured sulphur dioxide pollution
(which damaged buildings and caused respiratory and other diseases).
But although this activity undoubtedly raised awareness of pollution, the main cause of smoke in Edinburgh was from domestic chimneys, especially with the expansion of new suburban housing when slum clearance took off in the 1920s. And remember that local authorities were not given powers to control domestic smoke in the 1926 Public Health Act.
The Medical
Officer of Health reports stressed the need for people to let go of their
much-loved open coal fires for gas heating – or at least to burn smokeless
fuel. Domestic smoke was described as more “tarry” and “greasy” than that from
factories, and fuel was less likely to be burned completely. There was
some progress - smokeless fuel
was becoming more popular in homes by the end of the 1930s, but it still had to
be imported from England, increasing the cost.
Understandably,
the Second World War also hampered efforts to fight air pollution: the 1945
report tells us that the government actually encouraged the production of smoke
in wartime for security against surveillance and bombing. Although the legislation against excess industrial
smoke was reinstated prior to the end of the war, shortage of appropriate fuel
still hampered effort, and there was a fear that the public support had been
put back by the war.
But as the 1950s dawned and coke was put off the ration, the Sanitary Department were able to resume their activities, helped by local and national legislation. Local Edinburgh Corporation Orders established smokeless zones. The Clean Air Act of 1956 finally gave local authorities power to challenge the thorn in Edinburgh’s side: pollution from domestic chimneys. Going further than local zoning, the Clean Air Act let local authorities declare all or part of their district as a smoke control area. It also banned black smoke, and ordered urban residents and industry to convert to smokeless fuel. The impetus for this legislation came after a disastrous smog over London in 1952, which killed at least 4000 people and brought the city to a standstill.
Edinburgh’s
first smokeless zone was to the west of the city centre, in Sighthill (1957):
it was also Edinburgh’s first smoke control area under the Clean Air Act
(coming into action in 1960). Sighthill was chosen
on account of its relatively new housing stock, as well as being a developing industrial
area with more modern machinery and methods.
An exhibition on the new Clean Air Act and smokeless zones, run by the City of Edinburgh Public Health Department in February 1960. 6300 people attended in two weeks (LHB16/2/60).
In
preparation for the extension of smoke control areas, householders were
interviewed estimating costs of alterations so they could use smokeless fuel
(people could get grants if their fireplaces needed to be adapted). An
experiment was also started on a council estate on the southeast edge of the
city (Gracemount) to see if tenants were satisfied with smokeless fuel. After a
satisfaction rate of 85%, new council tenants were required to burn smokeless
fuel as part of their tenancy agreement.
The dawn of the 1960s seems an appropriate place to end this part of the story, although there is much more to find out from our region’s public health archives as the Clean Air Act evolved (in 1968 and 1993), and concerns about air pollution turned from coal smoke to vehicle emissions, acid rain and the greenhouse effect.
Scotland’s fight against tuberculosis also reached a turning point in the 1950s, and fresh air was joined by new weapons to prevent and treat the disease. Screening though mass miniature radiography (effectively mobile small x-ray units in vans) increased detection, and the BCG vaccine led to a sharp reduction in mortality.
Waiting to be x-rayed in a mass mobile radiography van, 1958 (LHB16/2/59).
The 1950s also saw the introduction of combination therapies
developed by Edinburgh’s Prof John Crofton. Using three different kinds of
antibiotics had a 100% success rate, eventually becoming the gold standard for
TB treatment.
If
you’d like to explore our collections to know more about Edinburgh’s public
health history, please do get in touch with us. And don't forget, you can read Medical Officer of Health reports to find out more about the City's effort to reduce air pollution and combat TB in this period here.
