Document X494g24nMgMnvyVn2295vaJR

ia .jr cl Pcct ile. oc; u t- Ol. oi. i es - W.il iund ures well is VI ill. >r. e. ipa..- eL- 1 .in plate s. The g line will be n pro jected fourth oration, carbc.. 156 >. th. T..e ts from oik. a / Public Misconc^pt.s.... Air quality inheres: and demands have surged ahead of facts, feasibuity and technology Dt RiNG the past decade there has been an extra ct ..nary .icrease in newspaper and magazine armies ooncem.ng air pollution. It is fair to say that tne subject has jeen one of the h.lf dozen favorites for publu- discussion. In :i>67 a bothersome smog in Los Angeles rates - ewspaper headlines, w.iereas .n 1957 that ventilation...pnved city's peculiar photochemical smog was Known to the rest of the country xcept via TV comeaians' jokes. Today everybody talks about air pol. .tion--and they're serious. /..e nay ..peculate whether the heightened public ... is ca o-d by a real and alarming increase in air ^.oili.tion or whether the interest is more the result of a ^un..o information campaign that has been enorrro.. ,v effec..ve. If publicity caused the interest, one : aiv. -ay that the press has created more pollution t..,,.. ,, y re... .jurecs. 3ut to be fair, it would nave to b........ . that the press has created more pressure for com, .s, am' .as thereby accomplished more control, than nuch legislation and expensive research. Public presto.e car. indeed be effective. For example, one smal. -lant i..stalled a several hundred thousand dollar device to eliminate a narmless but conspicuous stack plume main.y to get relief from finger-pointing and telepi. me caiis. Whate.. r the genuine reasons for the mounting puolic interest in air quality, it is clear to thos who work in environmental science that interest and demands have surged ahead of facts, feasibility and technology. Many people have mistaken ideas about our air situation and what can be done toward im provement. Air pollution cannot be measured by sight P > oably tne most common fallacy among the public is tr,.. the uegree .t air pollution of an area can be judgi acc irately by sight. If this were true, everyone coui be an expert in measuring air quality and in iden. tying me prui.tipal pollution sources But it is not poss.ole to ao so. C isider the suspended particulates ii tne air. These mat be dusts from the mechanical disintegr .on of matter, such as the crushing and grinding of .-ode. Or they may be soil particles lifted from the ground by ft*) , ~ *lir` of Air Qi,I. . JfiZ By K. W. NELSON Director, Deport.-:,ent of . and Agricultural Research American Smelting and ft*.... . Ksnnaih w. Ne ior. joinod American 5ire.:ir.g orj Rof./wng Co. in 1945 at or. Indus".ol hygienist and tubteajer- > J. .ed at chief hygienist and dl.^cror of rne Department of Hygiene, in 1965, Nelson assumed hit present posirion--airector of the Department of Hygiene ana Agricultural Research. r- Iik. L 1 I tatst mountains may be completely obscured by smog. The point is that through a distance of 20 miles or mo.c a minute concentration of ai.'oome particle? .r.pe.s visibility. The actual pollution is negligibly effect is pronounced. The eye, then, provides only a rougr estim?*c . par ticulate pollution--and no estimate at all for :n>-..-ir.e J gases such as carbon monoxide. It is evident that .so phisticated methods of air sampling and analysis must be used to get true measurements of air quality. wind or by the passage of motor vehicles. Or they may be particles abraded from rubber tires. Particulates may be fume from the vaporization and oxidation of metals, as in arc welding. They may be particles formed by interreaction of gaseous com pounds in bright sunlight--photochemical smog is an example. They may be smokes from the condensation of vapors to either liquid or solid particles of very small size--about five microns to less than 0.1 mi cron. Cigarette smoke, incidentally, has a median par ticle diameter of 0.16 micron and a maximum size slightly above 0.5 micron. Effective filtrauon, as one would expect, is somewhat difficult Tnen there are the mists, classed as liquid droplets of 10 microns and up. If mist becomes sufficiently con centrated it is called fog. apparent mat particulates alone are a mixture of '-ndt..- different aerosols. They give optical effects tr.a. -."vend on their chemical composition, their sizes i . stupes, as well as on their concentration. They, r.-.ay serve as condensation nuclei for moisture and .heir sizes will vary with the relative humidity. The intensity and wavelength of incident light will alter tl.eir appearance as will a view by transmitted light rather than reflected light Beautiful sunsets occur because normally airborne particulates scatter blue light from the sun's spectrum and transmit yellow and red. On rare occasions, how ever, the reverse has happened becauses particulates were of the right size, and blue sunsets have occurred. The complete absence of air pollution would result in colorless sunsets. No doubt there are some who would prefer pollution. There are many examples of misleading impressions of air quality based on observation alone. The air in homes, for example, seems pure in diffuse light, but dust is obvious when a shaft of sunlight enters a dark ened room or when the furnace filter is checked after a few weeks of service. At a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution neld in uu Angeles last February in the city's Hall of Adminb `ration, there was excellent ventilation. The air was clear. Yet an instrument I had with me consistently recorded a count of five to seven million particles per cubic foot of air. This is roughly 50 times the count one would obtain out in the country. It is difficult to notice pollution in the middle of a city wnere vision is restricted by surrounding build ings. But from a top floor office window a view of dia Panic legislation not Justified Whether fostered by newspaper articles or by r.n- servation, there is widespread belief that air POaIu.- . rfii is rapidly getting worse, that unless we take p o.v.pt and precipitous action, we shall be smothered in atmospheric wastes. Surgeon General Stewart and John Middleton, director of the National Center it: Pollution Control, both so indicated in testimony oc. the Senate Subcommittee on Air and Water . last April. Their assertions are not supported lv- a. :. collected by their own employees--members o: tr.t ? _.. of the National Center. According to the Department of Health, Edu.r.;.. and Welfare publication, "Air Quality Data irotr. . National Air Sampling Networks," the annual' gt- metric mean concentration of suspended particulate all cities sampled in 1957 was 12G micrograms pet . i. meter of air. (This is approximately the weigh* a one-in. length of human hair.) Concentrations w,.. - somewhat lower in 1958, 1959 and 1960 and -are.y over 100 in 1961, continuing at that level in 19bu anu lSb. There was a rise to 107 in 1964, 106 in 1965. In 1962 through 1965, concentrations of gasec-i. . lutams were measured continuously by HEW in major cities--Denver, Philadelphia, Chicago, San '' - . cisco, St Louis, Cincinnati and Washington. Co:: y. trations of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxic. ,, s. .. . dioxide, hydrocarbons and total oxidants v- uniform overall. There were no signs whate. cr . : -- nificant trends upward. All average conc^nuu. us were well below levels known to affect healui. An article in the Scientific American lor August . ported that the U.S. Weather Bureau recently it-. eri records of visibility at major municipal airports t: t.... years 1945 through 1965. Contrary to expectation. .. was found that smoke reduced horizontal vislou Ti- at those airports fewer times in 1965 than it aid -- I submit that the record does not show an ala.' trend to air pollution that would justify panic lega tion, extravagant spending, impractical air quail.> standards, and crash programs. Present air quality . many locations is not satisfactory and progress . and will be made toward improvement But . . time to do it in an orderly and sound way. Health risk of SO, debatable In several areas of the country it has bee:, decreed that only low sulfur fuels may be used. High sulfur coal and oil are banned. The inference is, and die public ls MIKING CONGRKfcft JOURN AL A ; 792 1 I c r e a a ff A ie .n ic a ;e en v.r ite ns .ea ;he . it at >45 mc ilality in ius: i is pec .blic NAL seems to believe, that sulfur dioxide from fuel com bustion is the dangerous compound among the innu merable pollutants, and that regardless of cost SO, levels in ambient air must be reduced. Sulfur cioxide is indeed a common pollutant and it has been present for hundreds of years. There is sharp disagreement 'among authorities, however, that sulfur dioxide, in the low concentrations in which it is found in cities, offers any kind of a health risk to humans. Dr. Patrick J. Lawther, director of the Air Pollution Research Unit of England's Medical Research Council, says flatly that SO, is highly overrated as an air pol lutant. Lawther and his colleagues have for the past 13 years been conducting studies--soon to be pub lished--on human responses to SO,. In sum, their re search has failed completely to identify SO, as the cause, or as a contributing cause, of the excess deaths recorded in London during the severe pollution epi sodes of 1952 and 1962. A few weeks ago I visited with Dr. Lawther and asked him whether any very recent findings had changed his opinion on SO, and its effect on city dwell ers. He said there had been no new discoveries to change his views. Further, he expressed some regret that SO, had proved not to be the lethal agent in London pea-soupers, for if it had, he said, his tedious search would be ended. Why the emphasis on sulfur dioxide? Probably be cause it has long been known to injure vegetation ex posed to sufficient concentrations under the right con ditions, and, more probably, because it is the easiest pollutant to measure continuously, accurately ..i inexpensively. An automatic SO, analyzer invv-.ut.i ->v Dr. M. D. Thomas, has been available since 1928. Ail air pollution studies conducted in the last 40 years have begun with SO, measurements. Some studies vu'ued on SO, data almost exclusively as indicators oi air /di lution. So SO, became an accepted yardstick of pollution but it is completely wrong to credit the yardstick wit!, effects that may be caused by hundreds of accompany ing pollutants. Inversions and calms which cause periods of heavy urban pollution permit the accumula tion of all pollutants, not just SO, No less a person than the Surgeon General fell :r.:o the common trap in testifying before a Senate subcc -r.mittee on April 19. He commented that a peak uf -ratr..in New York City on December 5, 1S66 "was re la- .'a to a big increase in sulfur dioxide." He did not .t, mtior. concurrent pollutants. The truth is that no au' ana effect relationship between sulfur oxides and .noceased mortality has been established. Nobody know; what pollutants, or combinations of them, or what otho.- en vironmental factors--temperature, pressure, hu.nidity --might have been involved. It is interesting to compare London's severe pol lution episodes of 1952 and 1962. In 1952 there <vere ap parently 4000 excess deaths; in 1962 the number was 400. Sulfur dioxide levels, though, were higher in the latter episode. Particulate levels were substantially THE REPORT CORNER Recent Publications of Interest to Mining Men USBM PI 6955. "Assigning an Area of Influence for an Assay Obtained in Mine Sampling," by Scott W. Hazen, -r.* USBM PI 6971. "Investigation of Stress Distributions in Burst-Prone Coal Pil lars," by A. J. Barry, A. Zona, J. L. Gilley, and R. H. Oitto, Jr.* uSBM PI 6976. "Laboratory and Pilot lart Development of Flotation Pro cedures for Fine-Grained Hematitic Gres of Marquette Range, Michigan," cf k. T. Sorenson and D. W. Frommer.* USBM PI 6980. "Relative Pressure Changes in Coal Pillars During Ex traction, A Progress Report," by Er. nest A. Curth.* JS3M Rl 6981. "A Rapid Colorimetric Method for Field Determination of Nitrogen Dioxide in Fumes from Ex plosives," by E. J. Murphy.* USBM IC 8328. "Woter Requirements and Uses in Wyoming Mineral Indus tries," by Millard M. Gilkey and Ron ald B. Stotelmeyer. Price: 504.** USBM IC 8335. "Potential Sources of Aluminum," by Staff, Bureau of Mines. Price: $1.** USBM IC B339. "Fluorspar in the East ern States," by Ronald P. Hollenbeck. Price: 304-** USBM IC 8348. "Fly Ash Utilization," compiled by John H. Faber, John P. Capp, and John D. Spencer. Price: S1.7S.** USBM Bulletin 621. "Some Statistical Techniques for Analyzing Mine and Mineral-Deposit Sample and Assay Data," by Scott W. Hazen, Jr. Price: Si.25.** USBM Bulletin 638. "Methods of Ana lyzing and Testing Coal and Coke," by Staff, Office of the Director of Coal Research. Price: 504-** USBM Bulletin 640. "Advances in Coal Spectrometry," by R. A. Friedel, H. L Retcofsky, and J. A. Queiser. Price, 354-** USGS Prof. Paper 440-D. "Data of Geo chemistry. Sixth Edition. Chapter 0. Composition of the Earth's Crust." Price, 254. * "Mineral Processing Patents issued Dur. ing 1966," by Oliver 5. North, 812 S. Ode St,, Arlington, Vo 22204. 230 pp. Price: $15. "Flotation Index.' Chemicois Soles, Marketing Promotion, 202C Aooott Road Center, Dow Chernies! "0. Midlond, Mich , 48640. Free "Proceedings of the Third Gold one Money Session." 1967 Pocifie North west Metals & Minerals Conference. Slate Deportment of Geology and Mineral Industries, 1069 State Office Building, Portland, Ore. 97201. 76 pp. Price: $2.00. Spec. Distribution Publicoticr. 54. A Symposium on Industrial M .-iera Ex ploration and Development." _..i* sify of Kansas, State Ger..:-. Survey, Lawrence, Kansas. 16' .;> "The Preliminary Geologic v Maine 1967." State Geolog.1 . 4 of Economic Development, : tote House, Augusta, Me. Price, $5.00 "Anotomy of the Western Phc e Field." 103 Utah Geological _ t Bldg., University of Utah, Sal >.0* r City. Price, $12.50. m4 m Hff 4| NovEXBU uei ^ ' 7OO ^ high.-.- in 1952. These facts implicate particulates and omer factors rather than SO_.. Little evidence to indicate long-term health effects The public has been led to believe that air pollution not only causes acute disease and death, but that it has subtle effects which may produce disease over the long term. The strategy of the promoters of hasty legislation and control programs has been to frighten people in order to gain their support. In a recent television pro gram, "Take a Deep, Deadly Breath," the tragedy of a young father with emphysema was portrayed at length. It was implied that polluted air caused the emphysema. The fact is that the true cause of emphysema is un known. The disease has been related to heavy cigarettesmoking, to chronic bronchitis, and to hay fever and asthma. But there is no evidence that a single case of emphysema has been caused by urban air pollution! There is but little, controversial evidence that urban pollution causes any significant long-term health effects. Pollution alarmists, through ignorance or intent, fail to mention the body's magnificent natural defenses against airborne contaminants. Everyone is born with a nose and throat which help clean and condition in haled air. We have in a mucous blanket lining our air passages which traps foreign substances. We have ciliated cells which move the mucous blanket upward to be expelled. We have the cough reflex to forcefully nd ourselves of an irritant. Unless they are overv. helmed by gross amounts of harmful pollutants' or a.e injured by infectious disease, these defenses last all our lives. If we did not have these defenses, our ances tors could not have survived natural dust storms and the smoke of their campfires. Air pollution control efforts are pushed in the name of hedth rather than esthetics or just plain desirability. It is strange then, that little attention is focused on an air pollution problem that doesn't rate headlines but that causes more misery and ill-health than pollution frorr. any of man's activities. I refer to the pollens of ragweed, Russian thistle and a host of other plants which affect directly, and in some cases very seriously, the health of an estimated 12 million people in the United States. I am one of the victims of pollenosis, or liay fever. Some of us who do not receive desensitiza tion treatment, or who do not respond to treatment, will develop more serious breathing problems such as asthma and emphysema. If health is truly so important in the air pollution picture, why not urge weed elimi nation campaigns of the same intensity and urgency as pollution control campaigns? There is cause for doubt about the sincerity of some advocates of better health through air pollution control. "The jab will be done" Because I take to task the control enthusiasts who stretch the truth and use fright propaganda to achieve their ends, I do not wish to be counted as one who favors air pollution. On the contrary I have spen- 25 yeu.s. working toward better control, both of plar.'. effluents to the neighborhood and of smaller scale prccess eftiuents within plants. The public is generally unaware of these activities within industry and believes tna: ndustry is responsible for most air pohunon and U. .iga.n.st control. This is a badly mistaken idea. The company which employs me has been contin uously engaged in air pollution research since 1914. As have most other industries, it has installed and im proved controls routinely as feasible methods have been developed. Pollution potential has been an impor tant consideration in planning and building new facili ties. Admittedly, industry's record has not been periect. But if it had been there would still be a pall over the larger cities because of high concentrations of auto mobiles. Transportation, studies have shown, accounts for 60 percent of urban pollution; domestic and miscel laneous sources--such as city garbage dumps--accoui.-. for 20 percent; and the remaining 20 percent is ascribed to industry. Legislation and publicity appear to be di rected disproportionately toward industry! Industry the whipping boy and shall continue to be for some time. For even if industry were able, technologically and with bearable costs, to get its houses completely in order, it should not expect any substantial improve ment in the appearance of urban atmospheres until automobiles with built-in emission controls have re placed those currently on the roads. California cities are ahead of the rest of the nation in this respect A leveling off and a downward .trend in pollution levt: have been observed in Los Angeles and San Francisco since the advent there of compulsory crankcase venti lation and exhaust-control devices. The six to ten years which must elapse netore the present auto population is largely replacec oy lowemission models will disappoint many people w..u be lieve that newly enacted air quality laws m out states will quickly clear the air over our population centers. Laws, boards and commissions will not accomplish im proved air quality as much as will technological ad vances. There are problems for which no feasible solu tions are in sight One of the pressing ana -m: .ers-.. problems will be how to maintain the low-emissior. features of the new cars; another is a simple device to measure auto emissions so that inspection systems can be set up to check performance. Ingenious engineers and scientists eventual.:, vtiii solve these and other problems, but even so city air will not be as clean as that over the oceans or on lonely mountain peaks. Where people live and move, some dusts and smokes must be dispersed, some pollution is inescapable. But fears about long-term, subtle health effects will be laid to rest and acute episodes causing accelerated deaths will be unthinkable. Either through fear or just through a very human desire for a more pleasant world, the people have decided that our city atmospheres need improvement The job will be done. A booklet entitled "Public Misconceptions of Air Quolity" is available from the American Mining Congress, 1) 00 Ring Building, Washington, 0. C. 20036 u SUNIMO CONGRESS JOCHNA2. A ; 7 92 3