Tobacco Documents Online

,~iC*~s}.a"c'!r7 7T.,3j\-aK. . ~ i . ._ - . . ... .r,_: •.. •a.~... . ., . . . v. : ~ 11 ~.~~4~ ~Suspicions directed by prominent scientists toward polluted urban air got wide g-spress attention during a Cincinnati conference on air poLlution. 1~.s L t M.~ iyV il•ty Aht~, 1he' exhaust fumes from automobiles are not The Public health Serviee, which has been con- only an irritant but a serious health hal,ard' as TAE WASHZNGTDrT well• They constithte an important element in the ducting Intensive studies of the part plaped by POST ; I tiir pollution which is strongly suspecte¢ by medi- automobile exhausts in poisoning the atmosphere, Washington, D. C. ;~ cal authorities to be a causative factor in cancer, is said to be convinced that additional, and rather June 6, 1960 asthma and heart disease. "Individu- more costly, devices will be needed to eliminate ,::bronchitis , d' t h f rom au oma at are emitte the hydzocasbons t !I;blly," _as the late Senator Neuberger observed, ,'none of' us can do much about air pollution- bile exhaust pipes-the major source of auto ~ ''~Collectively, through government, we can take pollutants. These studies will be continued and effective action to eliminatc or control it." intensified under a bill! passed by Congress and' ~ ;.Qne source of automobile fumes can be largely now before the President. Before Congress ad- controlled _ eontrolled by a simple and inexpensive device. journs, it ought to supplement this effort by pass- lr .The device can be installed beiow, the carburetor ing Senator Kuehel's bill! providing for public `, ' In such a way as to route so-called "blowby" gases hearings and' extending the Federal air pollu- ~ :baek into the cylinders where they are burned in tion control law: Americans would not tolerate (v^, the engine. Blowby is the mixture of air and poisoning of the water they drink; there is no: raw gasoline hydrocarbons that~ slips unburned reason for them to permit needless pollution of ~ - past the piston rings and is vented into the atmos- the air they breathe : phere from the crankcase. Although it accounts , Q rlfrth to onethird of the bydro 'Ao ony one-ou- ~ O -carbons emitted by automobile engines-and not .. V.n • .. . - . ' . . - '.i. . .L., w., .,A1, n 1,..A ` . .,,c ..ava. uu..bc.v..o ~a..~... p...,.......g ..~.. •...•....-.."..-• , . . . . . ' . . . f i f ~ a r nevertheless an important source o ,3 : -pgOG1ESS-INDEC . pnllution. ; Petersburg, Virginia . h A i ti '" ] as ( ssoc a on Ttte Automobileurers Manufact,~~ announced' that a device to eontrol blowby will L'.Ujtorials May 27' 1960, *e installed as standard equipment on all cars made after this year for the California market; .ToR'ard A More SC'ientific Approach the extra cost will probably be less than $10. Why; then, should the device not be installed on all Dr. Wilheim C. Hueper of the ehallenges the overwhelming im- new model cars? Senator Neuberger asked this Nattonall Cancer Institute is the portance assigned to it. _ question before his death a few months ago. See• source of a compilation of evi'- The heavy em hasis - u•on retary Flemming of Health Education and We1+ dence indicatin that air li ~ p p , g po u '~-fare warned the automobile manufacturers that tion is a prime cause of lun smol mg„ he 'sayp ignores the , I g fact that in Europe the upswing i6 they failed to putthe device into all new cars cancer and serving to de-empha- in lung cancers began before of their own volition they might be required to size cigarette smoking as a faotor, cigarette smoking was common do so by law. For our part, we do not under- His research is hailed as a land- and the fact that in this and stand what the auto makers-u the states or mark by the medical chiefi of the several other countries the lung Congress-are waiting fon Cars,ought no; to be Air Pollution Branch of the Pub- cancer rate is much~higher among allowed on public streets without this elementary ~tc Health Service. . urban than among rural smokers. " i protection for the public heaiih. Attention is directed to the fact To the layman, this seems to Buses and trucks which burn diesel fuel pro- that Birmingham, Alabama, has be sometning more than a finger duce fumes less hazardous to public health tF=n a lung cancer rate which is triple of suspicion pointed at air pol- gasoline exhaust yet even more offensive to the that of the national average. The lution. It confirms the feeling, human sense of smell and more irritating to rate is said to correspond to the that the anti-tobacco attitude of human eyes, noses and t'hroats- These, tco, can level of benzpyrene in the air of certain cancer organizations is be eontrolled' or corrected without exorbitant ex- Btrmingham;, and the same cor- something less than scientific- pense by attaching catalytic•afterburners or by relation has-been found in, many deodorizing:the vapors from diesel engines. Phila- British industrial cities where delphia, Cleveland and several other cities have coallis burned in huge quantiities:. required the deodorizing of theii^ urban transit According to Dr. Hueper, the systems, Wliy not Washington? The District claims that cigarette smoking Commissioners ought at leastito prod D. C. Transit causes between 60 and 96 pec into doing something to savelhe atmosphere fi'om cent of all lung cancers in males ~the noxious exhalations of those new behemoih, are evidently products oPa rather buses: Commissioner Welling5 crackdown on the selective type of . research and of ~' deliberate reasoning, from a limit- otfending buses of the Gray' Line is a good' begin- ed and special kind of evidence. ning: If Federal action is needed to complete pro- He does not seek. to exonerate tection ofthe community against buses and ta•ucks, cigarette smoke. He says that it moving in interstate commerce, certainly it~should'~ is quite likely that it' plays a be forthcoming. direct and indirect role, but he Tobacco-growing areas, the to- bacco industry, and users of to- bacco all have vested interests in the matter, but they have a right' to demand that consideration of the subject should be put back on a scientific track, Dr. Hueper's study should serve that purpose. From his findings, it appears,that the ado over smoking tobasco is diverting, attention from the more serious problem of air pollutio4t, which no degree of precaution or care on the part of an in• dividual' can cure.