THE
Jefferson Community College f t Watertown, N.Y
WORD
Jefferson Community College, Watertown, New York
Volume 4, Number 8
££*>
MARCH 9, 1970
EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTANTS
FACULTY KICKED UPSTAIRS
D r . James E„ McVean, President of Jefferson Community College, has announced the promotion of seven
members of the College faculty. The promotions will
take effect this coming f a l l , as the 1970-71 academic
year begins.
The promotion of a faculty member at Jefferson
Community College results from dedication in service
and overall excellence in the capacity of performance
in the college community.
Those-j^cefvina promotions are:
M r s . Betty Andrews, Psychology Department: from
Assistant Professor to Associate Professor;
M r . James Baker, Mathematics Department: from
Assistant Professor to Associate Professor;
M r . John Cecil, Science Department: from Assistant
Professor to Associate Professor;
M r . James Cox, Business Division: from Assistant
Professor to Associate Professor;
M r . George Dolch, Department of "'Counseling and
Student Services: from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor;
M r . Norman Hunneyman, Business Division: from
Assistant Professor to Associate Professor;
M r s . Carol Scanlon, English Department in Liberal
A r t s : from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor.
The quantity of air pollution in
the United States is now in excess
of 150 million tons per year. The
largest source of air pollutants on
a tonnage basis is transportation
with approximately 61% of the total
followed by industries (18%) and
electric power plants (14%). Space
heating contributes 4%, while refuse
burning adds the remaining 3% of
the total. Oxides of sulfur, carbon
monoxide, hydrocarbons, oxides of
nitrogen, carbon compounds, halogen compounds and particular matter are the primary air pollutants.
The effects associated with these
air pollutants are a reducting in
visibility, agricultural damage, material damage and physiological and
psychological stresses.
Air pollutant damage to plants is
complex but certainly real. The
three general types of damage that
can result are leaf tissue collapse,
color changes, and alterations in
normal growth patterns. There is a
specificity between the type of damage and the concentration of certain
pollutants. For example, clover has
a relatively low sulfur dioxide resistance level over a long period
of time and 0.15 to 0.20 parts per
million (p.p.m.) can cause damage
to leaf tissue. The mean concentration level of sulfur dioxide in Chicago for the years 1963-1965 was
0.17 p.p.m. Plants having an intermediate resistance level (0.2 to
0.3 p.p.m. of S02) include corn,
geans, strawberries and roses.
California, Florida, Idaho, Montana, New Jersey, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington and Utah are states
in which damage to agricultural
crops by air pollutants has been
severe. The agricultural claims for
damage by air pollutants in California alone is in the order of 132
million dollars in recent years.
Damage to materials of all types
have been reflected in all countries
of the world. Approximately forty
percent of the automobile rust in
the cities of the United States is due
to impurities in the air. Many of the
treasured monuments and buildings
of Europe have been deteriorating at
an alarming rate in the last two
decades.
Deaths have resulted by the added
physiological stresses of a high
concentration of air pollutants over
a city during an inversion layer in
the urban atmosphere. The first
such record of deaths was in 1930
in the Meuse Valley of Belgium
when sixty people died in a week.
The highest number of people to
die during one inversion was in
1952 in the London area, when in a
five day period, four thousand deaths
in excess of the usual mortality
rate were recorded.
The average person inhales about
one-half quart (liter) of air with
each breath or a total of two thousand gallons of air per day. The
urban resident in the United States
inhales approximately twenty billion
particles per day. However, the
respiratory system of man is structured so as to prevent nearly all
the particles larger than 2.0 u (1
micron • 0.001 millimeter) from
reaching the alveoli of the lungs.
A two year statistical study by Dr.
W. Winkelstein of the Medical School
at Buffalo revealed a lack of association between air pollution and
deaths from cancer of the trachea,
bronchus and lung in men age fifty
to sixty-nine in Erie County. However, Winkelstein found a correlation between cancer of the prostrate,
esophagus, and stomach and air pollution. A report from the Environmental Pollution Panel of the President's Science Advisory Committee
(1965) stated: "Attempts to identify
possible effects of ORDINARY urban air pollution on longevity or on
the incidence of serious diseases
have been inconclusive." The deaths
in the two dramatic air pollution
episodes cited above are believed to
have resulted largely from the increased physiological stress on people possessing such acute and
chronic respiratory diseases as
bronchial asthma, chronic bronchitis and chronic emphysema.
There is general agreement that
with the present quality of our air
there are immeasurable amounts of
physiological and psychological
stresses placed on inhabitants of
urban areas.
The particular matter of the air
in the United States has increased
ten fold in the last decade according to Dr. V. Schaffer of the Atmospheric Science Research Center of S.U.N.Y. at Albany. An inadvertent weather modification has
been correlated with the increase
in particular matter downwind of
Gary,Indiana's steel mills. The weather modification has been the decrease in the frequency of heavy
thunder showers and an increase in
fog and mist-like precipitation in
this area. The vastly overabundant
supply of condensation nuclei in the
atmosphere prevents the moisture
from being collected into large rain
droplets. In the last decade, the city
of London has improved its smoke
emissions control measures and
thereby reduced the number of condensation nuclei. The result in London has been a reduction in fog
frequency.
Light scatter by atmospheric pollutants might cause a decrease in
the mean temperature of the earth's
surface. The tremendous increase
in aerosol particles is believed by
a few scientists to be very gradually reducing the quantity of sunlight reaching our planet by backscattering the radiation before it
reaches the surface of the earth. It
is estimated that a reduction of
about six percent of the incoming
solar radiation could cause the global temperature to decrease approximately 4 degree C, thereby
causing the most recent ice age to
again cover its former regions. A
change in the mean global temperature of 2 degrees C could cause
a spatial shifting of biotic communities. Supersonic transports will
also increase air pollution at high
levels of the atmosphere where air
movement is minimal, thereby creating very long, if not indefinite residual times for aerosols at these
elevations. It is this type of long
term effect which is often the most
difficult to perceive and may be
the hardest to alleviate at a future
date.
An open forum on the difficulties
surrounding the beer blasts, was
held on February 19. At that time
all students were given the opportunity to express their views on
what can be done to amend the
trouble with the on-campus beer
parties and dances.
The "freeze" on the beer came
just in time to curtail the plans
of Phi Alpha Lambda sorority, and
the Freshman Class, who were both
planning beer blasts within the next
few weeks. Student Activity Board
of Control members pointed out
that these two organizations would
have first refusal rights on the
dance, when the restriction on alcohol is lifted on March 6th.
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COOL IT ON BEER BLASTS
An unprecedented action by the Student Activity Board of Control has put into effect a
"cooling off period" for all on-campus beer
blasts. The February 13 meeting of the S.A.B.C,
under the chairmanship of Dr. Fred McCarthy,
cited many grounds for the suspension of the
b e e r parties at the College.
It was stated that the two beerdance functions held in conjunction with the Winter Weekend posed
many problems for the sponsoring
College organizations that conducted
the beer blasts. Dr. McCarthy said
the main difficulties lie in the failure of the Alcohol Control Committees, age identification, hired
law enforcement officials and other
official groups to coordinate their
efforts during the course of the
dances.
Other S.A.B.C. members pointed out that many Alcohol Control
members were not properly checking student identification cards. It
was also stated that both Alcohol
Control Committee members and
College faculty chaperones had left
prior to the end of the evening's
activities; a violation of the stipulated Jefferson Community College
rules on the use of alcohol on campus.
Dr. McCarthy, in his evaluation
of the current alcohol controversy,
said that the College Board of Trustees were reluctant to renew the
College's privilege of having beer
on campus. McCarthy also said that
several faculty members have absolutely refused to chaperone any
more beer blasts on campus, until
the current difficulties are cleared
up. It was stated that the faculty
people are often placed in a "compromising position," when they must
race into the crowded College Center lounge to break up a potential
battle.
ANOTHER NAME EOR GOSSIP IS AIR P0LL0TI0N