Te TTL Tae nm eT ee

ann Cormeen J

: President

%

Workers Hall in New Toronto.

average man can live
five weeks without food.
He can live five days
without water. He cannot live
five minutes without air. These
/are the facts of life—or of
| . The popular conceptions are
, that the earth floats in a vast
| Sea of air and that we possess
'a super-abundance of life-giving
. Oxygén. These are false notions.
| The air we breathe is in reality
/ Only a thin band of oxygen ex-
tending a little higher than our
‘ tallest mountains.

_ Man is polluting the air! Pol-
‘lution comes from the burning
: of fuels in the home, in factories
‘and in motor vehicles. It comes
‘from chemicals released by or
used in mines and factories. It
‘comes from the hew processes
developed by scientists to create
‘new products.

jAPRIL 5, 1968—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 6

THE DAMAGE
CONTINUES

Over 13.3 million tons of
aerial garbage are now being
dumped into the Canadian at-
mosphere every year. These pol-
lutions are eating away at fab-
rics and metals; they are defac-
ing buildings and spoiling crops;
property damage alone amounts
to $1.3 billion annually, about
$65 per person. Included in this
figure is a $50 million loss to
agriculture. Pine forests have
been heavily damaged by ozone
produced by motor vehicle em-
missions. :

A commission headed by Dr.
G. E. Hall is now studying the
effects of the fluoride pollution
on animal and plant life in the

- Dunnville area and we wait

their report with interest and
concern — concern, because all
too often government appointed
commissions have been estab-
lished for the sole purpose of
doing a “white washing” job in
order to protect the government
who appointed it. We really
hope this is not true once again.
~The - $1.3 billion estimated
property damage loss excludes
the decline in real estate values
in neighborhoods with air that is
second class or worse. Homes
exposed to air pollution require
more frequent’ cleaning and
painting, inside and out. Cloth-
ing and furnishing must also be
cleaned more often. In low in-
come neighborhoods where fa-
milies cannot afford to maintain
their pollution - damaged _ pro-
perty, their own and the neigh-
borhood property values drop,
providing. an additional and
heavy cost to the people, their
community and the nation itself.

HAZARD TO HEALTH

In the United States the quan-
tity of pollution thrown into the

air is so fantastic that it is al-—

most beyond expressing in un-
derstandable form. Each day
motor vehicles alone discharge
250,000 tons of carbon mon-
oxide, 16,500 to 33,000 tons of
hydro-carbons and 4,000 to
12,000 tons of nitrogen oxides.

Foolish statements by the
auto industry, such as that made
recently by Karl E. Scott, presi-

dent of the Ford Motor Com-
pany of Canada Limited, if they
weren’t so irresponsible, would
be comic. In a recent speech, in
Hamilton, Ontario, to the Ro-
tary Club, Mr. Scott said that
the auto industry would remove
its objections to the Ontario
government’s announcenient
that exhaust controls will be
mandatory on all 1969 model
cars “if research should so in-
dicate the validity. of the legisla-
tion.” ;

Now, Mr. Scott must be jok-
ing! Surely! He can’t be serious.

The auto industry has in the

. past shown no regard for the

safety of the motorist or the
public and again are guilty of
over charging for safety devices

to increase their already record
breaking profits.
To try to illustrate; every day

these releases can provide a con- -
parts per mil- ©
‘lion (p.p.m.) of carbon mon-

centration. of 30

oxide gas to contaminate the air
to a 400-foot height over 20,000
square miles—as big as South-
ern Ontario. A carbon mon-
oxide concentration of 30 p.p.m.
in California means a serious
level of concentration and re-
quires issuance of an alert. At
this level the concentration can
lead to alternation of body func-
tions and may well lead to chro-

_ nic disease.

“There is no longer any

doubt,” former Surgeon General _

Luther L. Terry has declared,

“that air pollution is a hazard
to health.” Agreeing, the Amer —
can Medical Association recent
ly called for “maximum reduG ~

tion of all forms of air pollu:
tion.” Prolonged exposure —

low levels of airborne toxic SU

stances may have many he

effects. Primary interest cente® 1
system

on the _ respiratory 4
through which these poisons

easily enter the body. There 15
pollu:
tion is associated with a nut

strong evidence that air

ber of respiratory ailments,

cluding the common cold, chro™
nic bronchitis, pulmonary 4
physema, bronchial asthma 3%)

lung cancer.

ae

—_—— a

SOMETIMES DEADLY

In some instances air pollu

tion has become a deadly ki

on a large scale. In Donors
Pennsylvania, in October 2?
1948, smog settled down in the
valley for three days. Twé
people died and over 4,000
the 14,000 residents
acutely ill. In the winter %
1952 polluted and stagnant a!
caused*over 4,000 Londoners 40

of

die in a single week. In Dece™ —

ber 1953, New York City sU§
tained a week of smog wh!
caused 200 people: to die from
its effects. That. their dea

were due to polluted air was not

brought to light until a statis:

became |

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