Atmospheric Pollution Public Health Service will direct 5-year program to investigate air pollution by Louis C. McCabe
UBLIC Law 159, passed by the 84th Congress, “Authorized to be appropriated to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare for each of the five fiscal years during the period beginning July 1, 1955, and ending June 30, 1960, not to exceed $5,000,000” to provide research and technical assistance relating to air pollution. The Surgeon General of the Public Health Service will direct the program. Other sections of the act provide t h a t the Surgeon General may conduct research and develop methods of preventing and abating air pollution through the facilities of the Public Health Service and aid state and local government agencies and public and private organizations and institutions in similar activities, Contracts and grants-in-aid may be made to these organizations and to individuals for research, training and demonstration projects.
money. I n effect, it states that it is the sense of the Congress that the activity defined by the authorization should be carried out by the agency designated, specifies the maximum expenditure, and may or may not set time limits. Appropriations for the program are still subject to Budget Bureau review and action by the Congress. The recent session of the Congress approved $595,000 for air pollution investigations in the regular budget of the PHS and, following passage of Public Law 159, an additional sum of $1,190,000, making a total of $1,785,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1956. These funds are allocated as follows: Division of Sanitary Engineering Services Direct research Contract research Training Transfer to other federal agencies
$
435,000 50,000 40,000 400,000
Division of Special Health Services
Budget for current fiscal year
Contrary to general belief, an authorization act does not appropriate
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Direct research Contract research Research Grants (to be administered through the National Institutes of Health) Total
160,000 200,000 500,000 $1,785,000
I Dashed lines represent air streams.
Program development
The regular National Institutes of Health mechanismwill be used for processing research grant applications for air pollution projects. The Sanitary Engineering and Occupational Health Study Section of NIH will be used and the research grant applications will be reviewed by the National Advisory Health Council. Program supervision will be supplied through the Bureau of State Services Divisions of Sanitary Engineering Services and Special Health Services. The Division of Sanitary Engineering Services is responsible for research, technical assistance, training. and demonstrations relating to engineering and the physical sciences. The Division of Special Health Services has similar operations of a medical nature. Both of these divisions will develop contracts within their respective areas. Other federal agencies will be asked to undertake projects needed by PHS to develop basic information or data necessary to solve specific air pollution problems and for which they are qualified by staff competency or possession of special facilities. The U.S. Weather Bureau, the U. S. Bureau of Mines, and the National Bureau of Standards have participated in preliminary discussions with PHS concerning projects of this type. Contract research
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Average Doily Maximum Oxidoni Concentration (PPHM B u g . - Nov. 1954.
Air Pollution Foundation map of oxidant concentration in the Los Angeles Basin
October 1955
Many research and development requirements of an air pollution program may be met more economically in private or public laboratories or institutions having specialized facilities and competencies which can be used to supplement the projects of the Public Health Service. As examples, the following types of projects may be cited. 1. The development of specialized instrumentation for field measurement of specific air pollutants.
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
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DOW CORNING SILICONE DEFOAMERS
Atmospheric Pollution 2. Investigations of atmospheric pollution problems requiring the temporary services of persons possessing unusual skills of a high order. 3. Estimation of economic effects of air pollution in terms of damage to materials, vegetation, and possible loss of time and efficiency of workers.
4. Problems related to the dispersal of air pollutants can be explored in wind tunnels available in several institutions. 5. Organizations outside the PHS have skills and facilities for developing index plants for measuring levels of air pollution. Contracts may be placed with one or more institutions to evaluate this possibility.
have proved their efficiency and versatility in countless applications. For example:
6. Some of the universities have laboratories set up for development of air cleaning devices and equipment. Contracts for specific investigations may lead to the development of improved methods and devices for removing dusts, fumes, and odors from effluents.
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Aerometric survey report
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Report 9, “An Aerometric Survey of the Los Angeles Basin, August-
November 1954,” is now available from the Air Pollution Foundation, 704 South Spring St., Los Angeles 14, Calif. This is a book of 333 pages, which is priced a t $10. The aerometric (air-monitoring) survey was done under the supervision of the foundation at a cost in excess of $400,000. Comprehensive measurements of oxidant, eye irritation, plant damage, oxides of nitrogen, hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, aldehydes, sulfur dioxide, and visibility were made during last year’s smog season. The distribution of the principal contaminants is established with reasonable precision, thus providing a base for gaging future changes and progress. The sources of contamination are widespread throughout the basin and the material contribution of incinerators to the general pollution is demonstrated. The correlations among oxidant, aldehydes, hydrocarbons, and oxides of nitrogen are broadly consistent with previous laboratory experiment, which have demonstrated that the oxidants and aldehydes are produced by photochemical reactions between hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen in the presence of sunlight. The report includes a chapter on the development of several automatic recording instruments which are used in measuring the various contaminants. Correspondence concerning this column will be forwarded if addressed to the author, % Editor, INDUSTRIAL A N D E X G I N E ~ R I NCHEMISTRY, G 1155-16th St., N.W., Washington 6, D. C .
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INDUSTI AL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Vol. 47, No. 10
