[Music]
[Bryan Martin:] The inventionsof the 18th century
brought industry to England.
Mechanization spreadlike a rat wherever
coal and coke were available.
And the banners ofthis exclusive advance
streamed into the skyfrom the factory chimneys
and the dwelling houseswhich were built nearby.
Smoke and dirt came tomean wages and wealth.
And in the North, theproud saying was born--
where there's smoke,there's brass.
Black towns have come tobe regarded with affection,
and the enormous costs ofdirty air are overlooked.
But more than 100 millionpounds is spent each year,
repairing the destructioncaused by chemicals and soot.
In isolated instances, theskills of great architects
and the beauty offorgotten sculptures
are being uncovered fromthe corrosive grime.
The cost of cleaning thewest front of St. Paul's is
10,000 pounds, and toclean the whole cathedral,
150,000 pounds is needed.
This is what air pollution coststhe nation every five hours.
It's been estimated thatthe effect of the cleaning
will last about two centuriesnow that the city of London
is a clean air zone.
These chimneys willnot smoke again.
But the benefitsof clean air zones
are spoiled by the smokefrom their neighbors.
Two miles away from St. Paul's lies
Suffolk, where the target here for completion of the Clean Air Program
is not until 1974.
Throughout the wholecountry,
there's a lack of urgency about cleaning the air.
Supplies of smokeless fuelsare allowed to dwindle,
and government excusesare given and accepted.
Meanwhile, the costs ofdirt continue to rise.
Twenty-five million pounds a year on the nation's laundry.
The daily drudgeryof repeated cleaning
goes on, as the products of inefficient heating
fall endlessly insideand outside the house.
When the washingis put out to dry,
it's likely to be covered insmuts before it's taken in.
Recreation grounds are oftengrim places of sooty grass,
especially in theindustrial North.
Here the average airpollution is four times
as great as in London.
The drabness and thedirt of the North
may be importantreasons for the movement
south of younger people.
The unskilled andlaboring classes,
officially calledSocial Class 5,
tend to live in the crowded centers of industrial towns,
while professional andmanagerial classes,
officially Social Class 1, live, in general,
in the countryside on theoutskirts of these towns.
Money buys distance.
Social Class 1 live and exercise in clean air,
while people of Social Class 5, in the centers of towns,
breathe in dirt andchemicals continually
from the moment of birth.
The more physically activethey are, the more air
they draw into theirlungs and the greater
is the dose of poisonthey must take.
Bronchitis is five times more common in Social Class 5
than in Social Class 1.
Children in prams receive thefull blast of traffic fumes
before any dilutioncan take place.
Mothers can wash theirchildren's clothes,
but they cannot wash the dirtfrom their children's lungs.
[...]
The dirt we breathe in flowsinto the lungs and gets lodged
there permanently, making theblack lung of the townsmen
on the right easilydistinguishable from
the countryman's.
Normal lung tissue, seendown the microscope,
has a gossamer appearance.
But sooner or later, this getsdestroyed by dirt, chemicals,
and coughing.
The air we breathe containsvery many different pollutants.
Soot still comes from industrial chimneys.
Also from domestic fires.
Sulfur dioxide from dieselfumes, domestic smoke,
and industrial smoke.
Benzopyrene-- a knowncancer-producing substance--
from cigarettes, domesticfires, and diesel fumes.
Carbon monoxidefrom traffic fumes.
These and many other poisonoussubstances in the air
pass down the bronchial tubes and cause
inflammation and lungdiseases in many people.
Bronchitis causes30,000 deaths a year
and a loss of 27million working days.
Unknown thousandsof men and women
are crippled by recurringchest illnesses.
[Betty Cale:] How does your bronchitis affect you?
[Patient 1:] Well, it makes me so out of breath...
It slows me up.
[Betty Cale:] Does it curb your activities?
[Patient 1:] Yes, very much so.
[Betty Cale:] Have you hadto change your job because
of your breathlessness?
[Patient 1:] Yes.
I worked as [?]
It became too heavy for me.
So I had to take a look at a lighter job at a laboratory
where I can relax, sit down,and take things more easily.
[Betty Cale:] Is this lighter job as well paying as the other?
[Patient 1:] No, definitely not.
[Betty Cale:] How do you get to work?
[Patient 1:] By bus.
[Betty Cale:] How long does it take you to walk from the bus?
[Patient 1:] Well, three times than what it used to do.
[Betty Cale:] Why does it take you so long?
[Patient 1:] Well, 'cause you've got to stop to get, catch breath. [?]
While this is going on, I look at the shop
windows or looking at anything.
It also...you might have peoples looking at you.
Is he dotty?
I saw him doing this yesterday.
He stops and gots to staythere until he can properly
get his breath back to set off again.
[Betty Cale:] You find it embarrassing?
[Patient 1:] [Inaudible]
[Betty Cale:] Take a big breath, right in.
Get set.
Out!
Fine.
Ordinary breathing.
This is normal breathing.
In a few momentsI'm going to ask
you to take a big breathin and blow it out
as hard and as fast as you can.
OK.
Take a big breath right in.
Get set.
Out! Right out!
There you see thenormal vital capacity
and the rate atwhich he can blow it
out when he makes a big effort.
This is a patient whose lungshave been seriously damaged
by bronchitis.
In a moment, I will ask him to take a big breath in
and then blow it out as hard and as fast as he can.
As you will see, hecan't get very much out,
and what there is is very slow.
Now, take a big breath right in.
Get set.
Out!
He can't get it outquickly because his bellows
have been very badly damaged.
All right, normal breathing.
[Bryan Martin:] Hospitals are Crown property
and exempt from the Clean Air Act.
Medical apparatus becomesdamaged with dirt,
often from thehospital's own chimney.
In this hospital, the cost of cleaning far exceeds
the cost of drugs.
Many bronchitics sit athome, too breathless to work.
[COUGHING]
[WHEEZING]
[Betty Cale:] How old are you now, Mr. Holmes?
[James Holmes:] 58.
[Betty Cale:] How long have you been out of work?
[James Holmes:] Six years.
[Betty Cale:] Do you sit like this all day?
[James Holmes:] Yes.
[Betty Cale:] Why doyou sit like that?
[James Holmes:] It's the only way that
I can breathe easy is this.
[Betty Cale:] Do you have any pain?
[James Holmes:] Yes.
It cause pain in my elbows.
[Inaudible]
[Betty Cale:] Are they sore?
[James Holmes:] Very sore.
[Betty Cale:] Do the days seem very long to you?
[James Holmes:] No, the days ain't bad.
It's the nights what's long.
[Betty Cale:] How long do you usually sleep?
[James Holmes:] Um, about three hours.
[Betty Cale:] What wakes you up?
[James Holmes:] Well, I couldn't tell you [?]
I'm short of breath.
[Inaudible]
[Betty Cale:] Can you lie flat?
[James Holmes:] No, can't lie flat.
[Betty Cale:] Did you have a good night last night?
[James Holmes:] No.
No, about an hour last night.
[Betty Cale:] And then, what happened after an hour?
[James Holmes:] Well [?] at 8:30 I'm back again for another hour.
Sometimes I do an hour,
sometimes I do with less.
It all depends. On my breathing.
[Betty Cale:] And you sit up here in the night as well as the day?
[James Holmes:] Yes!
Oh yes, yes.
[Bryan Martin:] In the overcrowded conditions of small houses,
young childrenbreathe in the germs
that are coughed over them.
[Young girl:] Once upon a time, on a cold winter's evening
when the snow was falling gently from the sky and it looked like...[coughing]
[Inaudible]
[Holmes coughs as girl continues to read.]
[Bryan Martin:] Many authorities regard clean air
as a luxury to be enjoyed at some time when
it's more convenient.
We cannot postpone ournext breath until it's more
convenient, and in the meantime the air we breathe is dirty
and dangerous.
Bronchitis and other lungdiseases cripple and kill.
[Mr. Holmes coughs and wheezes.]
People need clean air.