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Show REP. LAURENCE 3. BURTON Since Eve first tempted Adam Ad-am to eat the apple in the Garden Gar-den of Eden, man has been plagued with complying with his wife's commands. History reports that one man, in the year 1257, came up with a solid sol-id answer to keep his wife happy. hap-py. Queen Eleanor, wife of En-land's En-land's Edward I, moved from Nottingham to Tutbury Castle because she couldn't stand the smoke from bituminous coal, so the King ruled an enforcement procedure so strict that by 1307 second offenders risked demolition demoli-tion of their furnaces. Seven centuries later, the United States began to control some of its industries lest we all move to Tutbury Castles of some kind. The answer today to air pollution certainly isn't as easy as in 1257. Air pollution pollu-tion is one of the worst problems prob-lems facing man today. The "dirtiest cities" according ac-cording to the Public Health Service's National Center for Air Pollution began with New York City and end with H i g h-Point-Greensboro, North Carolina. Sixty-five metropolitan metropoli-tan areas in the U.S., were involved in-volved in the Center conducted survey. After New York comes Chicago, Chi-cago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. An-geles. The "top three" are polluted pol-luted because of "large populations popula-tions in small areas, in which the power demands for improving improv-ing living are met by local generation gen-eration which burns high-sulphur fuels, and industry located locat-ed in mid-city." New Ycrk City, Chicago, and Philadelphia have poured millions mil-lions of dollars into research and materials to slow down the problem, but none has come up with anything to halt the air from being a garbage dump. In 1966 Los Angeles enacted a new law which enforced air pollution pol-lution controls for autos. At that time, cars were pouring 13,000 tons of pollutants daily into the atmosphere. Today, with this law enforcement, there is a drop of only a thousand tons. Despite all the legislation, cars keep spewing 12,000 tons of waste daily into the air. In Washington, D.C.. where the number of cars per square mile is one-and-a- half times as great as in metropolitan Los Angeles, our autos cause 50 per cent of the bad air. There have been some suggestions from auto manufacturers: cars driven driv-en by steam, electricity, liquified liqui-fied nautral gas, etc. but so far, there hasn't been sound solution. While many experts say the automobile is the number one problem in combatting air pollution, pol-lution, there are others who condemn the nation"s large industries. in-dustries. Certainly, many of the cities mentioned in the Center's report are ones that thrive on industry. Some industries are trying to solve the problem themselves. Another report which reached reach-ed me indicates that industry will spend from $10 to $20 bil- lion over the next decade "just to hold pollution at the present level." But if we are to do more than just "hold pollution at the present level" then we are going go-ing to have to act and that's on all levels of government. The Ari Quality Act of 1967 sets some guidelines for the ctates. The states, in turn, legislate their own set of rules. Utah is progressing in the right direction, I believe. Our Legislature appropriated funds tc set up the Utah Air Conservation Conser-vation Committee and, with the help of federal funds, the Committee Com-mittee is able to research our air pollution problems not only in the major cities but all over the state. The Committee Commit-tee then makes recommendations recommenda-tions to the State Board of Health. Many of Utah's industries indus-tries are tackling the problem themselves and seeking solutions solu-tions rather than waiting for govern ment-imposed regulations. regula-tions. Utah also has 18 "monitior-ing "monitior-ing devices" throughout the state to detect areas of air pollution. pol-lution. Three of the most sophisticated so-phisticated devices are located on the roofs of the health facilities fa-cilities in Salt Lake City, Og-den, Og-den, and Provo. Dennis Ft. Dalley, of Utah's Division of Health, informed me that while Utah is acting to control its pillution problem there is still the presence of Mother Nature herself. "Me-teorlogically "Me-teorlogically speaking, Utah has just as bad weather inversions inver-sions as Los Angeles," Mr. Dalley Dal-ley reports. "The help Utah gets is that we have our inversions in-versions in the winter when we aren't harmed by the sun. L. A.'s come in the heat of the summer." We certainly have to go full speed ahead or we'll all end up wearing gas masks. There is one ray of light . . . many sections sec-tions of Utah aren't bothered with air pollution. Maybe that's one reason we have so many tourists! They go to Utah not only for the beaiiful scenery, but to get one, good, clean breath of air. J. Earl Johnson, safety director di-rector for Utah County, urges parents to teach their youngsters young-sters the importance of seat belts. For peace of mind, have the whole family buckle up for safety. |