Exhaust and Smog: More Facts Needed
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KNOWLEDGE of the effects of motor exhaust gases upon the creation of " smog " is incomplete and investigation is required, say the Committee on Air Pollution in their interim report (Stationery Office, Is. 6d.).
Oil engines of all kinds use 2m. tons of fuel a year and produce 20,00040,000 tons of sulphur dioxide. If in poor condition, they emit clouds of dense smoke at ground level. Road transport vehicles used 5.3m. tons of motor spirit in 1952, The amount of sulphur dioxide produced was negligible but 4m. tons of carbon monoxide was discharged.
The total of 24m. tons of carbon monoxide emitted to the atmosphere seemed likely to cause harm only under " smog " conditions.
Bristol Health Committee last week asked for a report on their legal powers to deal with buses emitting oil-fuel fumes. The medical officer of health thought that some action should be taken to prevent the undue discharge of poisonous exhaust.
BETTER ROADS AND MAINTENANCE
riVER 300 members and guests, many
from the production side of the industry, attended the annual dinner of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers in London last Friday.
Guests included Mr. W. R. Black, president of the Society of Motor Manufacturers a n d Traders, Mr. H. C. Drayton, chairman of British Electric Traction, Mr. D. G. Stokes, Leyland Sales Director, Mr. Raymond Birch and Mr. A. Fraser Durdin.
Mr. G. Mackenzie Junner, president, said that the Institute, as it grew, might do something to reduce the number of vehicle prohibition notices and emphasized that it would be uneconomic to limit the growth of road transport, the only solution to the problem of congestion being to make the roads suit the traffic.
IN THE PUBLIC EYE
FEW men could have been more in the public eye during recent years than Mr. Bernard Winterbottom, national chairman of the Road Haulage Association, said Mr. A. Bolton, welcoming the visitors to the annual dinner of the North Western Area of the Passenger Vehicle Operators' Association, at Blackpool, last Friday. The hauliers' leader was a man who could be relied upon to watch over the interests of the smaller operator.
Among others present were Mr. F. Williamson, North Western Licensing Authority, and Mr. F. J, Speight, both members of the Thesiger Committee.
In his response, Mr. Williamson congratulated the P.V.O.A. on the quality of their representatives at both national and regional levels, and he touched on the question of contract-carriage operation to Blackpool illuminations.