Air, like water, is a limited natural resource. If it is allowed to become seriously polluted then it is because the municipalities have acted too late.

Air pollution can kill and make people ill, it can damage crops and a city's commerce. Municipal officials should know what air pollution is, how it is regulated and where to go for information and assistance. This article attempts to answer these points.

Here is the list of known air pollution disasters:

These are the dustfall figures of various cities in the air of substances that should not have been there, and that is probably as good a definition of air pollution as any. The unwanted material in the air may be soot, cinders, fly ash, dust, pollen, fumes or odors.

The first step is to measure the air pollution problem, just as the extent of traffic congestion or parking demand is measured. Simplest of the physical measurements is the dustfall deposit. A jar is placed upright on a building rooftop with some glycerine or water in it to trap falling dust.

After a month, the dust is weighed and the dustfall computed in tons per square mile from the known area of the jar. A local high school science or chemistry class could conduct such a survey for a city.

These are the dustfall figures of various cities in tons per square mile per month:

A hand peephole type smoke chart which can be used to measure smoke density. The Peoria ordinance prohibits emission equal to or greater than No. 3 smoke for periods more than four minutes in any-half hour. Many cities prohibit smoke equal to or darker than No. 2 smoke by the Ringelmann Chart. These charts may be obtained free of charge by writing the PILBRICO COMPANY, 1800 KINGSBURY STREET, CHICAGO 14, ILLINOIS.

Dustfall figures only measure the solids that settle out. The fine particles that remain suspended can be measured by use of a high-volume air sampler which blows air through a filter paper which retains the particles for weighing. Many cities, including Chicago and Springfield, take regular fine particle samples for analysis by U. S. Government National Air Sampling Network.

Other instruments have been developed to measure concentration of gases such as sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and ozone.

Another measurement of the local air pollution problem is to use the ear—listen to the citizen complaints!

So much for measuring the problem. The next step is to solve it. If the problem is caused by the burning of soft coal, the solutions are fairly simple. Automatic means of stoking or installation of over-fire air jets (to obtain better combustion) will solve many problems. The type of coal used may make a difference in the amount of smoke emission.

If the air pollution is caused by some manufacture or foundry operation, then suitable dust collectors or precipitators can be installed.

Other types of air pollution, such as the complex hydrocarbon reactions of the Los Angeles area, have no immediate solution at hand. A great deal of research is going on in these fields and the answers may be soon discovered. Odors are also peculiar problems but certain firms specialize in their elimination or masking with counter-odors.

The city should adopt an ordinance setting forth limits of density of smoke emission and fly ash content. Model ordinances of this type are available. A program of education and co-operation should be undertaken with fines and court action used only as a last resort. The Peoria air pollution control ordinance was adopted in May 1946 and the first court action has only now been started, ten years later!

Yet in that decade, Peoria industries have spent several million dollars to modernize their plants and decrease noxious emissions.

It should be mentioned that proper zoning for a city will aid in reducing

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Smoke from coal-burning steam engines has been eliminated in Peoria and elsewhere, by substituting Diesel engines.

Smoke from the Illinois State Armory in Peoria, will be eliminated by fall, according to State officials.

Smoke and odors from open dumps such as this one, can be eliminated by using the sanitary landfill method of refuse disposal.

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future air pollution complaints. Grouping similar industrial uses in a given area is far better than permitting them to scatter among residential areas. Some fairly large Illinois cities are still without zoning law protection for their residents.

The State Department of Health has recently prepared a report for Governor William Stratton which lists statements on the air pollution problem by various groups. Out of this beginning is expected to come a defining of the role which the State will play in controlling air pollution. Air pollution within a city should be left to local officials to control but State assistance is needed for areas near borders of other states or near unincorporated areas which are sources of air pollution. The State is the logical place to centralize technical assistance and co-ordination of research in air pollution.

To correct air pollution costs money. In Pittsburgh, industry is said to have spent 200 million dollars to conform to smoke regulations. But the resulting lifting of civic spirit has sparked a great renewal movement In the former "Smoky City."

The City of New York has estimated that it costs each citizen twenty dollars per year because of air pollution. In a city of Peoria's size, this would mean an annual loss of $2,300,000—a sum surely large enough to attempt to save by meeting the Challenge of Air Pollution.

Sources of Information

These are organizations that can be of assistance on air pollution problems:

Air Pollution Control Association
4400 Fifth Avenue
Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania

Air Pollution Foundation
704 S. Spring Street
Los Angeles 14, California

Coal Producers Committee for Smoke Abatement
Transportation Building
Cincinnati 2, Ohio

Department of Public Health
New Office Building
Springfield, Illinois

Midwestern Air Pollution Prevention Association
Room 1191
140 S. Dearborn Street
Chicago 3, Illinois

Robert A. Taft
Sanitary Engineering Center
U. S. Public Health Service
4676 Columbia Parkway Cincinnati 26, Ohio

These are books of value on air pollution:

Air Pollution Abatement Manual, 1952
Manufacturing Chemists Ass'n, Inc.
1625 Eye Street
Washington 6, D. C.

"Air Pollution and Community Health" by Dr. Clarence A. Mills,
Christopher Publishing House,
Boston, Massachusetts. 1954

These are recent magazine articles on the subject:

"Pittsburgh, a New City" by Alfred Steinberg, National Municipal Review, March 1955

"The Los Angeles Smog" by Ronald Schiller, National Municipal Review, December 1955

"Fighting Smog: No Victory in Sight" U. S. News and World Report, Jan. 13, 1956

These are excellent films on air pollution:

"The City That Disappears," Stanford Research Institute, 621 S. Hope St., Los Angeles 17, Calif.

"Smoke Control in Pittsburgh," Allegheny Conference on Community Development, 200 Ross Street, Pittsburgh 19, Pa.