Ecology: Menace in the Skies

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$600 for Cleaning. The unwholesome mess that U.S. citizens and corporations spew into that great sewer in the sky costs them dearly—$11 billion a year in property damage alone, according to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Air pollutants abrade, corrode, tarnish, soil, erode, crack, weaken and discolor materials of all varieties. Steel corrodes from two to four times as fast in urban and indus trial regions as in rural areas, where much less sulphur-bearing coal and oil are burned. The erosion of some stone statuary and buildings is also greatly speeded by high concentrations of sulphur oxides.

Heavy fallout of pollution particles in metropolitan areas deposits layers of grime on automobiles, clothing, buildings and windows; it adds about $600 per year in washing, cleaning, repairing and repainting bills to the budget of a family with two or three children in New York City, according to a study made by Irving Michelson, a consultant in environmental health and safety. Because of fly ash and soot from smokestacks, the main façade of Manhattan's New York Hilton was so badly discolored that it had to be replaced last year, only 31 years after the hotel was completed. Ozone, a principal component of photochemical smog, discolors and disintegrates clothing and causes rubber to become brittle and crack.

Vegetation, too, suffers from polluted air—even in rural areas that until recently were believed to be out of the range of contamination. Sulphur dioxide causes leaves to dry out and bleach to a light tan or ivory color, kills the tips of grasses and of pine and fir-tree needles.

Scientists are certain that the ozone and PAN in Los Angeles smogs have caused the serious decline in the citrus and salad crops in the area. In one of the many smog experiments they are conducting, they have planted lemon trees in small greenhouses in a grove near Upland. Pure, filtered air is pumped into some of the greenhouses, air containing measured amounts of pollutants into others. When the fruit is finally picked, the scientists will compare the quality and yield of lemons from trees in different greenhouses, hoping to learn more about how each component of smog affects the crop. Some effects of the smog are indisputable. Such diverse plants as orchids and spinach can no longer be grown in metropolitan Los Angeles.

In semi-rural Florida, east of Tampa, large amounts of fluorides emitted from phosphate plants have rained down on nearby citrus groves, ranches and gladiolus farms. Orange and lemon trees that absorbed the fluorides produced smaller yields, and gladioli turned brown and died. A national air-pollution symposium reported that cattle grazing on grass that was contaminated with the fluorides developed uneven teeth that hindered chewing and joints so swollen that many of the animals could not stand. Fluorides have also etched windowpanes, giving them the frosted appearance of a light bulb.