America's Problem off Air Pollution Drawing Attention off Congress, Experts
Editor' Note: Next Tuesday is the
(eenth anniversary of the start of
the treat Donora smog which left 20
residents of the little Pennsylvania
Industrial town dnd and thousands
ill. Donora't disaster was an acute
form of a chronic condition which ef
fects most Ameittans. Following is a
dispatch on air pollution and what Is
being done about it.
Br JOSEPH L. MYLER
Untied Press Correspondent
Washington (U.R) All Ameri
can! breathe dirty and occasion
ally poisonous air some of the
time.
Seventy per cent of them, the
residents of large city areas,
breathe it most of the time.
Perhaps as many as 10,000
U. S. communities, a survey in
dicated today, hav local air
pollution problems crying for
solution.
Not even the wide open spaces
of rural America are exempt
from "natural smog," blowing
dust, forest fire smoke, ragweed
pollen, and invasions of atmos
pheric filth from distant centers
of contamination.
The dirty air most Americans
breathe may contain scores of
different irritants or poisons
everything from acid droplets
to zinc fumes. ,
In one community air pollu
tion may appear, to be no more
than a mild nuisance. In another
it may constitute an economic
calamity. It may on occasion be
come a killer.
Health Hazard
One thing appears certain:
Contaminated air can be a health
hazard. Many medical authori
ties are beginning to suspect
strongly that it may be a major
cause of lung cancer.
In any case, exclusive of its
effect on the nation's physical
and social wellbeing, ditty air is
a destroyer qf, wealth. W. B. Gib
son of the Stanford Research In
stitute has said the direct econ
omic loss from air pollution may
be around $1,500,000,000 a year.
Dr. Louise C. McCabe, nation
ally known air "pollution author
ity recently drafted by the Pub
lic Health Service, has listed
someof the costs of air pollution
as fnlows:
Depreciation of land and
buildings including the slum
breeding creeping blight known
as' "downtown deca y"
$300,000,000.
Crop and forest and domestic
animal losses $30,000,000.
Cost of municipal and state
programs $10,000,000.
Equipment Costly
Equipment installed to con
trol air pollution $150,000,000.
Damage to merchandise $300,-
000,000.
Is anything being done to
make the air clean as well as
free? Individual communities
and industries have been fight
ing against dirty air for years. -But
for only about a year
and a half has the federal gov
ernment been doing much of
anything about what has be
come both an international (as
in the Detroit-Windsor area)
and interstate (New York-New
Jersey) as well as local (Donora,
Pa., and Los Angeles) health
and economic problem.
And only 'last summer did
Congress authorize the Public
Health Service to undertake a
five-year research campaign to
find out (1) just what air pollu
tion is, (2) just what it does,
and (3) how best to combat it.
For the first year of the cam
paign Congress appropriated
$1,780,000.
How long will it be before
the campaign produces major
results? Many, many years. Re
search on the chronic effects of
air pollution on human beings
and animals alone will take
more than five years, according
to the government.
Air pollution is as old as na
ture. Pliny the Elder was killed
by poisonous air in 8 A.D. dur
ing an eruption of Mount Ve
suvius. Man-caused air pollution is
the big menace to modern pop
ulations, however. Ever since
the industrial revolution got
under way in the 18th century
man has been pouring billions
of tons of waste gas, smoke, dust
and chemicals into the atmos
phere. It has been estimated that
factory chimneys each year vent
6,000,000,000 tons of carbon di
oxide alone. The rise of the mo
tor car with its exhaust fumes
and of the chemical industry has
added incalculably to contamin
ation of the once-safe air.
Smog Disasters
It took the great smog disast
ers of the 20th century to awak
en authorities to the health haz
ards of dirty air. In 1930 a
heavy fog enveloped the highly
industrialized Meuse Valley of
Belgium. The toll: 60 dead.
Seven years ago on Oct. 27,
1948, a similar fog rolled over
Donora, Pa., an industrial
town of 12,300 population and
sat there for six days. Twenty
died, perhaps as many as 6000
fell ill.
In December, . 1952, London,
which had been struggling with
smog for six centuries, had its
worst blackout. It lasted four
days. In the following two weeks
some 4000 persons died before
their time as a result
Smog chronically afflicts Los
Angeles where "objectionable
conditions" exist 100 days out
of the 365. Warm air from the
Pacific often is trapped over Los
Angeles by high mountains east
of the city. '
Gov. Goodwin J. Knight once
asked Mark D. Hollis, chief san
itary engineer of " the Public i
Health service, if removing one j
of the barrier mountains would
help Los Angeles rid itself of j
smog. !
It would help, all right, but
could it be done? Who's to say
what Los Angeles can do?
A city that went across hun
dreds of miles of deserts and
mountains to tap the Colorado
river for water . might be cap
able of even greater marvels to i
get itself a supply of clean air.
Medford
r tt
Tribune
United Press Full Leased Wire
United Press Full Leased Wire
Second Section
MEDFORD, OREGON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1955
Pages 1-1?
Berkeley Scientists Prove Existence
Off ever-LBefore Isolated Anti-Protons
Washington (U.R) Atomic
researchers have proved the ex
istence of anti-protons, particles
of matter long believed theo
retically to exist but never be
fore isolated.
Scientists captured the "nu
clear ghost" at the Atomic En
ergy commission's radiation la
boratory at the University of
California at Berkeley. They did
so with the university's $9,500,
000 bevatron, the world's most
powerful atom smasher, in what
was, called "oneof the classical
experiments of nuclear physics."
The anti-proton is the nega
tive version of a proton, one of
the fundamental particles of an
atom's nucleus. It is of the same
mass as the proton but of a dif
ferent charge. "
The AEC said the anti-proton
is born outside an atom s nu
cleus following some "high en
ergy nuclear event."
Reinforces Theory .
"The discovery does not modi
fy the model of the atomic nu
cleus," the AEC said. "Rather it
reinforces and solidifies current
theory: This eliminations of un-'
certainty about one of the cor
nerstones of nutfear theory is
one of the discovery's most val
uable features."
Until the bevatron wasbuilt,
there was no way to create a
nuclear bombardment of suffic
ient energy to capture the elu
sive "ghost."
The Berkeley scientists used
the bevatron to accelerate pro
tons to 6.2 billion electron- volts.
The protons then were aimed at
a copper. target inside the beva
tron chamber.
When .the protons crashed into
one, of the copper atoms, there
was created a "brand new set
of heavy particles, a proton and
an anti-proton." The scientists
isolated the anti-protons by set
ting up a "maze" through which
Housefly Said One of .
Greatest Disease Carriers
St. Paul, Minn. (U.R) Never
underestimate the power -of the
housefly, the Minnesota State
Medical Association said. It is
one of the greatest disease-carriers
in history.
"Screening and insecticides
have helped reduce the menace,"
the association said, "but good
sanitation is the one weapon
against which flies cannot de
velop resistance. One careless
person can be the source of
enough flies to annoy everyone
on the block. The bsst method
of controlling flies is to elimin
ate places where they lay their
eggs."
Costly Railroad Bridge
Never Put To Use ,
Portage, Wis. (U.R) There is
a lift bridge over a government
canal for the Milwaukee Rail
road tracks here that has cost
the company nearly $100,000
since 1938 but has never been
opened.
The bridge was constructed in
1938 at a cost of $72,470 plus
22,725 for additional work all
because the canal was called a
navigable stream between- the
Fox and Wisconsin' Rivers. It
was built by order of the govern
ment's Corps of Engineers. Rail
road officials say there are no
plans for removal of the structure.-'
' -. ".r; V- .,
only they could pass.
The AEC said the anti-proton
is stable only in a vacuum.
Observed Only
So far scientists have been
able to observe the anti-protons
only by "radiation counters but
efforts are being made to obtain
photographs of them in photo
emulsions, the AEC said.
Announcement of the anti-proton
was made simultaneously
here and in Berkeley yesterday.
Dr. Ernest O. Lawrence, Nobel
Prize winner and director of the
UC ' radiation laboratory, cred
ited four of his associates with
the discovery: '.
Dr. Emilio Segre, 50, a native
of Italy; Dr. Owen Chamberlain,
35, a native of San Francisco;
Dr. Clyde E. Wiegand, 40, in
Oakland; and Dr. Thomas Ypsil
antis, 27, formerly of Salt Lake
City.
Dr. Willard F. Libby, acting
chairman of the AEC, wired the
four men congratulations, say
ing the discovery was "valua
able in man's effort to control
and use his physical environ
ment' - ; -
mm
nun
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