Question

status of air pollution 50years ago

Answer 1

Is air pollution in fact a menace to public health? The first place to look for damage by unclean air would be the body surfaces exposed to air: the skin, which is hardy and mainly covered by clothing, and the respiratory passages, which are not covered at all. There is evidence that a commonplace disorder of the bronchial tubes and lungs—chronic bronchitis and emphysema—is showing an alarming increase in some places. At the same time, it cannot be said that any particular atmospheric pollutant is the cause of bronchitis-emphysema or other bronchopulmonary disease, in the legal or scientific sense of the term. If something is happening to the public health from the widespread pollution of the air, it must be happening to a large number of people. Yet it must be something that goes on undramatically in its individual manifestations; otherwise it would attract public notice as an ‘epidemic.’”