EDITORIAL Countdown for positive pollution control is well under way Current public restlessness to do a vague something about pollution control is rapidly consolidating into an action type program
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f one can cut through the fog of flippance, he can find much of value in a well-planned 18-hours-long radio program devoted almost entirely to the subject of air pollution. Just such a program was produced this month by station WCAU in Philadelphia. It is covered, mostly in pictorial form, in this issue (page 792). An ES&T reporter-editor spent the full day in the station’s studios. He noted that the discussions, which involved station talk masters, interested citizens, informed professionals, expert observers, and knowledgeable politicians and public servants, were often superficial and diffuse, but, now and then, factual and pointed. The discussions stimulated a variety of comments from some of the almost three quarters of a million listeners tuned in that day. The following comments are typical of those made by both listeners and discussants during the day’s events: The problems of air pollution are insidious. We may conclude that where physiology is affected, psychology is also affected. The pollution situation will worsen for the next few years, and all major cities are sitting on a pollution powder keg. A disaster could easily come from the interaction of an inversion and a day of heavy air pollution. Industry plans to spend $73 million for pollution control, whereas car owners are being prepared to spend $400 million. .Air pollution control is no longer strictly a technical matter. Now it is an economic and social (health) problem as well. Industry is trying to meet the minimum levels of the law, but is not really fired up to solve the problems.
Fines are not the way to achieve pollution control. Abatement will be accomplished only by putting the deliberate offender out of action. Names of offenders should be published so consumers can boycott the guilty. Even though much air pollution may be caused by individuals, the fact is that individuals have very little to say about what is done to correct it. Thus, more control by government officials is needed. The main reason for the current movement of pollution control bills is the tremendous groundswell of public opinion. What all these comments mean, really, is that the public is fully aware of the need to do something-albeit a vague something-about pollution. The public is eager to ameliorate a difficult situation. It is convinced of the danger. And it is convinced of its inability, as individuals, to do anything meaningful. Citizens know, too, that no matter who pays for what, they, as consumers and taxpayers, will end up with the real bill. And overall they seem resigned to accept that responsibility. From the evidence, WCAU’s full day of public service broadcasting did not fulfill its fond hopes that listeners now would be fully convinced that air pollution is a major menace to today’s society. But in the degree that it failed, it failed only because the listeners already knew of the menace, at least in part. And they clearly demonstrated a restlessness to solve the matter quickly, efficiently, and permanently. The restlessness is building. Those in industry and government taking appropriate control actions may escape the gripes and the wrath of an aroused citizenry. Those doing little or nothing are in for a widely heralded, rapidly approaching, vexatious judgment day. The countdown is under way.
Volume 1, Number 10,October 1967 771
