Pneumonia and atmospheric sulphate deposit.

THE fact that pneumonia mortality is higher in urban areas suggests that air pollution has some effect upon the incidence of this disease. To test such a possibility, pneumonia mortality-rates were calculated for the whole populations of fifty-three cotinty and Metropolitan boroughs in England, Scotland, and Wales, from the Registrar General's annual statistical reviews for the 5-year period 1950-54. These rates were then plotted against the pH of the precipitation, and the atmospheric deposit of tar, ash, other combustible material, and sulphate, using data for single stations and periods within these boroughs taken from the 27th report of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research on the investigation of atmospheric pollution (1955). From this preliminary study it was evident that the only one among these components of air pollution showing any obvious relation to pneumonia mortality was sulphate deposit, which presumably depends mainly upon the emission of sulphur dioxide from burning coal.