As America’’s air becomes steadily more contaminated, activities across the nation to cope with smog appear to be lagging further and further behind actual needs despite a rising public clamor for improvement.
There has been a considerable progress in the last couple of years. But the over-all picture is that so many localities haven’’t really come to grips with the air pollution problem that people might be dismayed if they knew how their welfare was being trifled with.
Air pollution sources are now hurling more than 140 million tons of contaminants into the atmosphere every year, by Federal estimates. Two years ago it was only 130 million tons.
The increase has been caused by many things--more people, more automobiles, more industry, more space heating, little if any reduction that more often than not are inadequate.
The adverse health effects of air pollution are becoming more widely recognized, although specific medical evidence is still fragmentary. As a psychological annoyance, often called an "esthetic" factor, it translates into decreased property values. In damage to crops and other plants, its cost is reckoned in millions of dollars; in damage to structures and materials, in billions.
Federal and state pollution control officials report the following highlight of the current situation.
States and localities generally still have penalties for air pollution that are little more than a wrist slap (with fines as low as ＄10). Enforcement is generally sketchy and weak. And the remedial procedures are so cumbersome that more and more they are being bypassed by simple lawsuits brought by public officials or citizens.
Although Federal law has required auto makers to provide vehicles with fume control equipment, few states have done anything to assure its effectiveness, after a car has left the factory, by providing for regular inspection of the equipment.
Public officials in many places still seem to consider bursts of complaints from citizens preferable to complaints they might get from instituting effective air quality programs. Industries and other polluters, such as municipalities, still exert great influence, opposing or weakening regulatory laws and "packing" regulatory boards with their own spokesmen.
Public resentment over air pollution is growing, as is shown by recurring incidents of picketing (设置纠察员) and increasing number of legal actions.
The big Federal program to combat air pollution, under way for several years, is proceeding fairly close to schedule. But Federal auto-fume regulations will not be very productive for nearly a decade until around 100 million unregulated, older-generation cars have been replaced on the highways.
The part of the Federal effort that deals with stationary pollution sources, like factories, is still largely in an organizational phase, yielding little immediate reduction in fumes.
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