POLLUTION, AIR
A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.
—Joel 2:2
4436 Danger Of Air Pollution
Some believe the sky is unlimited. They think the vast amount of space up there will not affect the world. But earth is basically a closed system. The waste-disposal process that we have produced clearly has limits. It is important to realize that the winds that ventilate the earth are only 6 miles high. Above this level the air rapidly thins out to almost nothingness by the 15-mile level. More and more we are filling every inch of air space in the limited six-mile umbrella that covers the world.
4437 Rising Air Pollution
Air pollution alone has increased from an annual outpouring of 142 million tons of pollutants in 1965 to more than 200 million in 1970. The National Center for Air Pollution Control estimated that by the year 2000, this will increase to 404 million tons annually.
4438 Automobile Fumes
There were only 1 million cars in the United States in 1940. Today over 100 million—and increasing. Sixty percent of the air pollution in the U.S. are from automobile exhaust fumes.
4439 Tokyo And Los Angeles
In Tokyo, policemen return regularly to headquarters to breathe oxygen; there are also vending machines for dispensing oxygen to pedestrians. The smoke and smudge over Los Angeles could be seen by astronauts from space.
4440 Pollutant-Measuring Machine
Stockholm University has perfected a machine capable of measuring pollutants in the air and tracing their fluctuations minute by minute for a week.
The machine “breathes” from 8 to 10 liters of air a minute, almost the same as a human’s consumption. It can be placed on a street or in an office in order to get an exact picture of air pollution in any given situation.
It photographs air pollution through an electronic microscope.
4441 Acid Rains Over Norway
The Norwegian Institute for Air Research reported in 1977 a record rate of sulphuric rainfall in Southeastern Norway. It was said that in one recent heavy rain and snow period, almost one-third of the annual total of sulfuric rainfall had fallen and left a ton of that chemical on each . 38 square mile of territory.
The acid rain had been heavy enough to form a film on the water and to kill fish and some vegetation. The acid rains came from emissions of sulphur used in power stations in England and other countries which drifted over Norway and combined with rain and snow to come down as rain.
4442 Polluting The Ozone Level
The propellant used in aerosol spray cans is collecting in the earth’s atmosphere, scientists warned. They said it could reduce the protective ozone level and result in an increase in human skin cancer.
A recent sample of the air over the arctic, in the vicinity of Spitsbergen, north of Norway, showed the presence of the chemicals. The manmade chemicals, called fluorocarbons, are present in the atmosphere over both populated lands and remote areas of the world.
The highly unstable chemical, widely used in air conditioners and refrigeration systems and as an aerosol propellant for spray paints, deodorants, hair sprays and insecticides has apparently been travelling, invisible and unnoticed, on circulating air currents to virtually all portions of the globe.
The U. S. produces and consumes about half the world’s fluorocarbons. Fifty percent goes into spray cans—mostly for such personal products as hair spray and deodorant. Nearly all air-conditioning and refrigerating systems in the U. S. employ fluorocarbons as the coolant. This end-use accounts for 28 percent of the total production. The rest is consumed in production of foam, cleaning agents and fire extinguishers.
4443 Stockings Dissolved On Legs
On a January day in 1957, Richmond, Virginia, was hit by an unusual plague. Girls walking down the street suddenly discovered that the nylons on their legs literally dissolved and disappeared.
No one knew what caused the mystery of the missing nylons until it was referred to a city chemist who analyzed the stocking remnants. Some detective work turned up the fact that the girls had been on the same street corner at about 8:30 that morning. There was a high humidity and virtually no wind. But a large amount of sulphur was in the air from air pollutants. This unhappy combination made the nylons pop into nothingness.
In further checking, they discovered that this was not a startling discovery, for 300 women in Jacksonville, Florida, also had an identical experience.
4444 Pricing A Tooth
Some years ago, the old rule of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth was altered by the State Industrial Commission of Minnesota to read, “Seventy dollars for a tooth.” It seems that Donald Naylor, who works in a large grain storage warehouse in the Twin Cities, was forced by the dust there to sneeze so violently that he literally sneezed away one of his teeth, an artificial gold one that had cost him $70.00 to replace. So the commission ruled that restitution should be made to him for his loss.
—Evangelistic Illustration
4445 Epigram On Pollution (Air)
• Detroit is one city that knows how to deal with air pollution. It pumps its air into the tires of the cars it manufactures and quietly ships it out of town.
—Chicago Tribune