Environmental Pollution

Man has always 'been faced with theproblem of getting rid of his wastes.At one time this was simply solved bymoving to a new cave. But as ournumbers increased, we spread overmore and more ot the land; as ourtechnology developed, we had moreand different types of wastes to getrid of. The size of the total environ-ment remained constant, but theamount of undesirable material whichman throws off into his atmosphere,spreads over or buries on his land, ordumps into his rivers and oceans hasincreased to the point where his actualexistence is seriously threatened by hiscontamination of the very environmentwhich has so long sustained him.Our environmental pollution has

now reached the point that drasticmeasures must be undertaken. There isno new cave to move to and, if wecontinue our present course, we willbe trapped. To the growing awarenessof the problem has been added a na-tional concern for the future if thepresent rate of destroying our life-sustaining environment continues. Thishas resulted of late in many articles inthe popular press-articles in somecases designed to scare us into -action,but all written to point out the inevi-table fate awaiting us unless somethingis done. The scientists of the UnitedStates have become increasingly con-cerned, and the recent publication ofthe National Academy of Sciences' re-port, "Waste Management and Con-trol," focused some of the best mindsin the country on this problem. Theresult of this recent awareness of themagnitude of the problem we are fac-ing is a growing national will to geton with solving the problem so thatour earth will continue to be habitable.The concern of the scientist for the

problem and the knowledge that partof the solution must come from himhave resulted in his devoting part ofthe December meeting of the Ameri-can Association for the Advancementof Science to discussions of environ-mental pollution and possibilities of itscontrol. Both Section M (Engineering)and Section 0 (Agriculture) have sched-uled full technical sessions on pollu-tion and its control. The AAAS Gen-eral Session on the morning of 28 De-cember will be a broad look at the

1056

current problems of environmentalpollution and control. Five discussionson environmental pollution will coverthe health aspects, future problems inestuaries and coastal marine waters,the atmosphere, nuclear aspects, andthe role of industry in environmentalpollution.

Norton N. Nelson (Department ofEnvironmental Medicine, New YorkUniversity Medical Center) will con-sider the health aspects of environ-mental pollution. Waste products areconsidered as pollutants when they be-come objectionable or harmful to man.So it is man himself, both as the causeand as the recipient, about whom weare most concerned. What is ouir en-vironmental pollution doing to the hu-man body?

Donald W. Pritchard (ChesapeakeBay Institute of the Johns HopkinsUniversity) has specialized in the basicunderstanding of estuaries and theirphysical processes, and he will discusssome of the more critical problemswhich we will face in the future if ourlakes, estuaries, and near-shore watersare considered primarily as waste re-ceptacles without consideration fortheir other resource potentials. Some52 million people live within a 50-mile-wide belt along the coasts of the UnitedStates. This is only about 8 percentof our total land area but it is oc-cupied by almost 30 percent of ourpopulation. At present growth rates,this population can be expected to dou-ble in the next 30 years. As our pack-ing of people and industries into thisarea intensifies, so too will our wasteconcentration and attendant pollutionbecome even more of a problem. It isin this coastal strip that man is in themost intimate contact with the marineenvironment. In terms of seafoodharvested per unit area, the estuariesare the most productive marine en-vironment used by man, but they arealso increasingly used for the non-extractive resources such as transporta-tion, recreation, and waste disposal. Yetthese utilizations of the same resourceare in mutual conflict. How should thisproblem be approached for optimumresource utilization?

Vernon G. MacKenzie (Division ofAir Pollution, the Public Health Serv-ice) will discuss the problems of air

New York Journal Americant

pollution. Twenty years ago the prob-lem of air pollution was considered tobe only scattered local smoke nuisances,and public indignation was focusedmore on dirty shirts than on dirtylungs. Even as late as the 1950's localcontrol efforts were directed to thelimited objective of controlling a nui-sance. Today, however, the situation isdramatically different. To the originalnuisance value of smoke has beenadded a host of gaseous and particlepollutants which greatly outstrip thecapacity of the atmosphere to dispersethem, and the local nuisance hasevolved into a ubiquitous threat to ournational health and welfare. The effectsof air pollution now are extremely seri-ous. Lowest estimates of annual eco-nomic losses due to air pollution in theUnited States are several billions ofdollars, and these figures do not in-clude the costs in human health and ir-ritation. While the degree of air pollu-tion rises annually, the amount of

SCIENCE, VOL. 154

on Decem

ber 11, 2020

http://science.sciencemag.org/

Dow

nloaded from

133rd AAAS Meeting, 26-31 December 1966, Washington, D.C.

available air remains the same. The1963 Clean Air Act is a step in theright direction, but the fragmentationof political responsibility for air pollu-tion control and the economic impedi-ments to strong controls presently hinder efforts to avoid what could veryeasily ~become a major national disaster.

Joseph A. Lieberman (Division ofReactor Development and Technology,U.S. Atomic Energy Commission) willconcentrate on the expected growth ofnuclear power and the quantities ofradioactive material this growth willentail. He will review and examinethe environmental aspects of the in-creasing use of nuclear power for the

E..........~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ enraio of electricity and discuss

what is now being done to control theproblems related to the radioactive fis-sion products produced during nuclearplant operation.

Athelstan F. Spilhaus (Institute ofTechnology, University of Minnesota)has devised a wholly new conceptwherelby industry instead of concentrat-ing -on the products it produces, alsoconsiders what is left over or discardedand makes use of this. it is a closingof the loop with reduced pollu-tio-n asone end result. The traditional job ofindustry has been the supplying of

U.S. Public Health Service things to contribute to the "'ease" ofFederal Water Pollution Control Administration

orlvn.Aplue niomn

loaded withi the discards of "~ease"causes "dis-ease"-sometimes in thephysical sense, more than likely con-tributes to m-ental disease, but unques-tionably to the larger definition of dis-ease as opposed to ease.

American scientists are concernedabout environmen,tal pollution-veryseriously concerned. They are upsetabout what they find about themn nowand what they can predict for the fu-ture. They want to and must contributea major increment to the solution ofwhat has become the major environ-

LE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~mentalproblem facing mankind. Manmade the problem, and man can solveit. The symposium at the annualmeeting of the American Associationfor the Advancement of Science on28 December will be one step to-ward this solution.

HARRIS B. STEWART, JR.Institute of Oceanographiy,Environmental Scienice Ser-vices

$ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Admiinistration, Silver Sprinig, Maryland

1057

on Decem

ber 11, 2020

http://science.sciencemag.org/

Dow

nloaded from

Environmental PollutionHarris B. Stewart Jr.

DOI: 10.1126/science.154.3752.1056 (3752), 1056-1057.154Science 

ARTICLE TOOLS http://science.sciencemag.org/content/154/3752/1056.citation

PERMISSIONS http://www.sciencemag.org/help/reprints-and-permissions

Terms of ServiceUse of this article is subject to the

trademark of AAAS. is a registeredScienceAdvancement of Science, 1200 New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20005. The title

(print ISSN 0036-8075; online ISSN 1095-9203) is published by the American Association for theScience

© 1966 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science

on Decem

ber 11, 2020

http://science.sciencemag.org/

Dow

nloaded from