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assis m c e facility to provide domestic and nternational training, day-to-day technical assistance, cooperative demonstration projects, and digital analysis and processing capability. Recent developments affecting the scope of activity of the EROS Data Center include the successful launch of LANDSAT-2 on January 22, 1975. LANDSAT-2 joins LANDSAT-1, which has exceeded its expected life by nearly two years and is still sending back quality data. The interest in the use of these data is reflected by increased demand by the domestic and the international community. From 10-15% of the orders received at the Data Center are from non-U.S. customers. The EROS Data Center’s Applications Assistance Branch has been expanded during the past year. The professional staff on this Branch includes applications scientists in mineral resources, land use and mapping, forest and rangeland management, and agriculture and soils inventory. The training and assistance functions are carried out by these professionals in the Applications Assistance Branch. Sixteen formal training courses are planned for this year, two of these to be interdisciplinary courses for foreign scientists. Among the numerous cooperative demonstration projects currently underway are flood and floodplain analysis, South Dakota land use planning, Pacific Northwest land use analysis, forest defoliation mapping, and evaluation of the environmental impact of coal strip mining and strip mine reclamation. The diversity of these programs and projects indicates that the users of the data produced are involved in varied disciplines. The largest segments of serious users of the data are private industry and government. Requests for imagery (LANDSAT, SKYLAB, NASA aircraft, and USGS aircraft) should be directed to the User Services Section. Details regarding remote sensing applications and training courses can be obtained from the Applications Assistance Branch. Mail requests should be addressed to: EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls, SD 57198. Telephone inquiries should be made to (605) 594-65 11. Allen H. Watkins EROS Data Center Sioux Falls, SD 57198
It’s your health Dear Sir: Your editorial (€S&T, December 1975, p 1101) states without attribution: “Automotive air pollution kills 4000 Americans each year. Sulfur emissions from coal-powered plants will, if unchecked, kill 25 000 people in the next five years.” I believe your readers should be told that these two sentences were lifted from a political speech by Representative Morris K. Udal1 (November 5 , 1975), and that you and the American Chemical Society are in no way endorsing them. Unless such a specific disclaimer is published promptly, there is considerable risk that these sentences will become accepted as fact, and publication in this journal cited as “proof”. Perhaps a word as to the origin of these statements would be in order. The automotive number is misquoted from Volume 1 of the National Academy of Sciences report, “Air Quality and Automobile Emission Control” (September 1974, pp 11-12). An accurate, undistorted, and attributed paraphrasing of the sense of this report would be “A National Academy of Sciences stud suggested that if air pollution is responsible for as much as 1 YO of urban mortality, this would represent 15 000 deaths annually, of which between 150 and 4000 might perhaps be due to automotive emissions.” Whether even this very different statement than what was published could itself be proven by objective data is yet another matter. The coal-fired power plant assertion is misquoted from a speech by John R. Quarles (December 2, 1974), in which he said, “Other studies indicate that sulfur emissions, largely from coal-fired power plants, are likely to kill as many as 25 000 people between now and 1980” (emphasis added by me). Whether the studies mentioned by Mr. Quarles are themselves based on sound and interlocking clinical, epidemiological, and laboratory animal data, or whether they only represent first attempts to formulate a quasi-quantitative judgment in this uncertain and controversial area in the absence of such data, is also an open question-which is perhaps too important to be left to the experts in these fields. H. J. Kandiner
Now you can be sure of reliable, on-thespot results. Fully illustrated instructions and unique chemical packaging make Bausch & Lomb SpectroKitTMReagent Systems easy, accurate. dependable to use. Compact for the lab-perfect for the field.
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Just sample, react and read as 1-2-3 Test for: Alkalinity Carbon Dioxide Chloride Chlorine (Free and Total) Chromium (Hexavalent) ChPr Dissolved Oxygen
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Hardness (EDTA) Iron Nitrogen (Ammonia) Nitrogen Nitrate Nitrogen Nitrite Phosphate Sulfate Turbidity
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* Laboratory Reagents and Standards Portable and Laboratory Spectrophotometers ( 15 models) Applications Laboratory Assistance Water Technology Manual For complete information contact Bausch & Lomb, Analytical Systems Division
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BAUSCH 6 LOMB @ A NALYTl CAL SYSTEMS
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2 5-04-28 Linden Avenue, Rochester, N.Y. 14625.
Soid in U S.A. oniy by Fisher Scientific and VWR Scientific.
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Volume IO, Number 4 , April 1976
311
