A Worldwide Crisis
The move to the cities is not only in England. It is apparent throughout the world. Compare these figures!
A hundred years ago, Europe was mainly rural. Then only 26% of French people were city dwellers, 21% of Denmark, 15% of Norway, 10% of Sweden, and 36% of Germany. Today these nations are all predominantly urban. France 53%, Denmark 67%, Norway 50%, Sweden 56%, and Germany 74%. (Fraser Brockington, World Health, p. 129)
The Industrial Revolution has bequeathed Britain — and the world — ugly, blackened, shabby cities with spreading, grasping suburbs. This is the price paid for industrial greed. "The Industrial Revolution," says Professor Fraser Brockington, "has left the world with a legacy of outworn towns, sprawling suburbs and disfigured countryside." (Fraser Brockington, World Health, p. 129)
British cities today are crying out for renewal. In a government White Paper it was revealed that one house out of fourteen in 1967 was condemned as a slum. (Survey Magazine, 10 May 1968, p. 494) Of those remaining, nearly 30% lack such amenities as an indoor lavatory, a fixed bath, a wash basin and a hot and cold water system. (Op cit. p. 493) All this despite the boom in new housing!
In one district of 2½ million population, comprising the greater part of London county, between 30 and 80% of families live in shared dwellings! (Herbert Commission, 1960 quoted in The Future of London p. 116) It is estimated that 43% of the houses in Liverpool are unfit (slums) and 33% of Manchester. (Slums of Social Insecurity, p. 116)
Vast sections of Britain's cities are old and insanitary. Yet in these cities the bulk of British people live. Remember 90% of Britons are town and city dwellers! There are 55 million crowded on a small island only three-fifths the size of California!
How much further can Britain go with her congested, slum-ridden cities? Will we soon reach the maximum these islands can accommodate?
Frightening Menace of Traffic
British cities are also being stifled by congestion from another source — TRAFFIC. In 1961, traffic congestion alone probably cost the country £250 million. (Traffic in Towns, Penguin edition of government Buchanan Report, p. 22) On one weekend recently, there was a traffic jam for 17 miles. (27th July, BBC News)
The rapid increase in the number of vehicles on the road aggravates the problem. In ten years the number increased by 150%. (Town and Country Planning in Britain, by Central Office of Information, p. 25) Today there are about thirteen million vehicles in Britain. (Daily Telegraph, August 23, 1967) By 1980, it is estimated, there will be three times as many cars on the road as there are today. (Traffic in Towns, p. 11)
British cities and roads were not designed to cope with such an onslaught.
Accidents occur at an alarming rate. An average of one driver in three will have a crash on Britain's roads this year. The odds of being killed or injured in a lifetime of motoring are a terrifying one in two. (Traffic in Towns, p. 11)
Total road casualties in Britain run with alarming consistency at about 400,000 per year with about 8,000 deaths. (Annual Abstract of Statistics, 1967) Almost 75% of these occur in urban areas. Why?
Drive, the Automobile Association magazine, says: "British accidents are costly because we drive too fast on roads which are too crowded and more antiquated than those in almost any Western country." (Traffic in Towns, p. 11) Britain now has the highest traffic density in the world (27.4 vehicles per road mile compared with 20 in U.S.A. and 17.3 in West Germany) (The Future of London, p. 153) The problems of our roads are approaching insolubility.
A government publication called the growth of motor traffic the most disruptive force that ever assailed British towns in peacetime. (Town and Country Planning. loc. cit)
Sir Geoffrey Growther, in the preface of the Penguin edition of the governmental Buchanan Report "Traffic in Towns," says: "I call it a national emergency . . . Few of us in Britain realize in what an early stage of the Motor Age we still are, or with what speed the full emergency is advancing on us . . .
It is impossible to study the traffic problem without being at once appalled by the magnitude of the emergency that is coming upon us. . ."
In British cities, however, traffic moves at an average speed of only 11 m.p.h. (Traffic in Towns, p. 22)
Our Fouled, Poisonous Atmosphere!
The air we breathe in the cities is a slow poison. Cars in Britain are a major source of air pollution. In running an average car over seven years the exhaust pours out enough carbon dioxide to fill St. Paul's dome twice over; enough carbon monoxide to fill nine three-bedroom bungalows; enough oxides of nitrogen to fill three double-decker buses; and enough lead to make a chest weight for a deep sea diver. (Drive Magazine, Spring 1967) As well as this it emits pounds of sulphur dioxide, aldehydes and complex organic compounds. (Life Threatened, by Aubrey Westlake, p. 56)
Sixteen million tons of carbon monoxide are added to the British atmosphere every year. (Evening Echo, [Hemel Hempstead], 18 July 1968) It is suspected of being a hidden factor in unexplained road accidents. (Drive Magazine, Spring 1967) It dulls the mentality and slows down reactions. (Daily Telegraph, 23 August 1967) "In any street, especially on a still summer day, most people in cars are in a partially poisoned state," says Dr. G.M. Mackay of Birmingham University's transportation study group. The symptoms are exactly the same as those caused by alcohol. (Drive Magazine, Spring 1967) A London driver takes in enough black smoke to turn his lungs permanently black. (Evening Standard, [London], April 10, 1967)
How much damage do pollutants do? No scientist really knows. But considerable sums of money are being spent to find out because the two indicators of respiratory damage — bronchitis and lung cancer — are rising in Britain. (Evening Standard, [London], April 10, 1967)
Sulphur dioxide is an irritant and a poison. It is probably a major contributor to the chronic bronchitis incidence in England. (Life Threatened, p. 55-56) The mortality rate from bronchitis — "The English disease" — is much higher than any other country. It is as much as forty or fifty times greater than in Scandinavia or the United States. (Evening Standard, [London], April 10, 1967; Control of Air Pollution, by Alan Gilpin, p. 9) Between 35-40 million working days are lost because of it. (Evening Standard, [London], April 10, 1967) (Approximately ten percent of all periods of absence are due to bronchitis). (Control of Air Pollution, by Alan Gilpin, p. 9)
Lung cancer death rate in Britain has shot up in the last half century. In 1906 there were 200 deaths from lung cancer. In 1966, there were 27,000 — much of it attributable to pollution of air by smoking.
Twenty-four million tons of filth are poured into the atmosphere every year. A governmental committee estimated conservatively that air pollution costs £250 million — that's $600 million — a year (£150 million in direct costs paid out and £100 million in loss of efficiency and production).
This is equivalent to £10 ($24) for every man, woman and child in black areas and £5 ($12) elsewhere. (Op cit. p. 14-15) These figures do not include the extra work housewives need to do to keep the home bright and their families in clean clothes — nor in fact for the cost of ill health. A recent estimate has doubled these figures. Half of the natural light may be stolen by smoke haze over cities. (Op cit. p. 15)
In heavily industrialized areas of Britain, over 1000 tons of grit and dust fall on each square mile each year i.e. about 2 pounds on each square yard. A million tons of grit and dust, 2 million tons of smoke and over 5 million tons of sulphur dioxide are produced each year. (Pesticides and Pollution, by Kenneth Mellaney, p. 74)
And Now — NOISE!
Another pollution of the air is NOISE. In a noisy office the efficiency of a typist is reduced by one fifth. At the same time the brain work of her boss is reduced by one third. Spread over the country this represents £1000 million ($2.4 billion) in lost production.
Excess noise harms the ear. Deafness can be produced by a loud noise — an explosion of 130-160 decibels in a short time. Or it may occur through continued exposure to a noise level of 85 decibels, as is obtained in many factories. This type of deafness occurs in one person in ten of those exposed. (Life Threatened, p. 65-66)
Rivers Turned to Open Sewers
The wastes of today's cities find their natural outlet into the atmosphere or the rivers. The director of the Anglers' Cooperative [Clean Water] Association acknowledged privately to our editors that probably 95% of Britain's rivers are seriously polluted. (Exclusive interview, 26th July, 1968) It is estimated that the population produces 4500 million gallons of sewage per day. More than THREE-QUARTERS of this together with a similar proportion of industrial wastes are discharged into inland waters. (Biology of Polluted Waters, by H.B.N. Hynes, p. 7)
Britain uses ¼ million tons of detergent — nearly twice as much per person as America. Foaming presents problems on many rivers. (Water and Life, by Lorus and Margery Milne, p. 65) At a weir in one town large volumes of foam are produced. If there is a wind in a certain direction, large amounts of foam are blown over the roofs of houses into the main street.
The Tees River is believed by some to be beyond redemption. (Exclusive interview, 26th July, 1968) The Tame has been called "the waste pipe of the Midlands." In a tributary stream an official recently burnt the skin of his hand when he took a sample. (Times, 16 May, 1966)
Scientists told Trent officials it was possible for a glass of water to be drunk eight or ten times before entering the sea. (Times, 16 May, 1966) It is thought that Thames water is drunk seven times over on its way to the sea. (Exclusive interview, 26th July, 1968) The water supply that reaches London has been affected by the effluent discharge from places like Reading, Oxford and Luton. The Deputy Director of the Water Pollution Research Laboratory at Stevenage reported to our editors, "Some reuse of effluent whether accidental or deliberate is almost inevitable in this country . . . A large proportion of flow in one or two rivers is composed of treated effluents. So that reuse of water is . . . an essential part of the water economy of the country." (Interview, 24 July, 1968)
While many of the rivers are being polluted, natural resources of water are disappearing. Demand for water might well be 2¼ times the present rate by the end of the century in London and the south east. (Daily Telegraph, 6 September, 1966) Yet in London and the Colne Valley natural underground supplies are steadily shrinking. (Guardian, 17 February, 1967)
Much of water shortage can be blamed on increased urbanization. Large areas have been covered with impermeable tarmac, concrete and buildings. The result is that England has been compared to a vast roof, off which rain water pours dangerously fast without being absorbed in the soil. This causes flooding and at the same time, a growing shortage of underground water. (Editorial, Daily Telegraph, 12 July, 1968)