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9 Rutgers L. Rev. 609 (1954-1955)
Air Pollution in New Jersey

handle is hein.journals/rutlr9 and id is 667 raw text is: AIR POLLUTION CONTROL IN NEW JERSEY AIR POLLUTION CONTROL IN NEW JERSEY Thomas A. Cowan* I THE PROBLEM t Introduction Everyone pollutes the air. The use of our atmospheric blanket results in its absorbing some of our waste products. To be sure, the atmosphere clears itself just as does our water supply. But the strange and unnatural uses to which mankind has in recent centuries put these two universal assets give rise to the problem of removing from them human pol- lutants. We no longer look upon water as an inexhaustible, self-cleansing and self-renewing asset. In all civilized lands, the problem of water pollu- tion is well recognized. But the irritations and mischief resulting from conscious human pollution of our atmosphere have only recently received widespread attention as the result of certain dramatic incidents. On Wednesday, October 27, 1948, a heavy fog settled over the town of Donora, in western Pennsylvania. The inhabitants were quite accustomed to this phenomenon and thought nothing of it at first. However, this particular fog lasted four days. Meanwhile, numerous smelters and slag heaps continued to pour forth their accustomed ton- nage of pollutants into the atmosphere. No one seems to have recog- nized the emergency nature of the affair until its catastrophic propor- tions were revealed later. When the fog lifted on the following Sunday, 4,000 of the io,ooo residents of the city were ill, and 21 had died of the effects of the pollution.' * Professor of Law, Rutgers University. t The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance rendered by Mr. Arthur H. Kahn in preparing this section. I. For a comprehensive report of the incident, see PUBLIC HEALTH BULLETIN No. 3o6 (Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D. C.). Two similar incidents, extensively discussed in the California Symposium on Air Pollution, 27 So. CALIF. L. REV., 347-414 (1954), have occurred subsequent to the Donora incident. The first incident occurred in the refining town of Poza Rica, Mexico, on November 24, 195o, hospitalizing 320 people and resulting in 22 deaths. A general temperature inversion in the area, in which ioo 'million cubic feet of petroleum are processed daily, caused a heavy fog to hang over the area between 4:oo and 6:oo A.M., limiting visibility to ioo feet. McCabe, Atmospheric Pollution, 43 INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY 79-A (Feb. 1951).

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