Noise and Fumes Discussed
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NEW regulations to prevent excessive noise from road vehicles are to be brought out by the Ministry of Transport as soon as possible. But it will be some time before the new rules can be formulated, for, as Mr. John Hay, Parliamentary Secretaryto the Ministry, said in the Commons last week, the work involved was very complex.
"I do not want to hold out any hopes that we will be able to act all that quickly," he explained, after Sir Richard Pilkington (Cons., Poole) had asked for the offending minority to be dealt with "severely and as soon as possible."
The new regulations, said Mr. Hay, would be based on the British Standard for a method of measurement which was issued last month, on the proposed British 'Standard for sound level meters, on the results of tests on the actual noise emitted by vehicles, and the effect of various levels of sound on the hearers.
There was a more negative response from Mr. Hay when Sir Richard asked him whether he had made arrangements for the test of the latest United States lorry exhaust purifier. He understood that the United States authorities were urging on American Motor manufacturers certain devices to prevent the escape from the crankcase of unburned hydrocarbons which leaked past the pistons, replied Mr. Hay, and it might be that these were what Sir Richard had in mind.
These devices did nothing to purify or suppress exhaust fumes. maintained Mr. Hay, and had in fact been fitted to most petrol-engined vehicles made in this country since the nineteen thirties. It was more difficult to adapt them to dieselengined vehicles, and fewer.were so fitted.
The police and the Ministry's technical officers did all they could to enforce th existing law. He pointed out that th new regulations prohibiting the use o the excess fuel device while vehicles wer in motion coma into effect on JanUary. 1