Statement About Cleaner Air Week

WITH the growth of our cities, the expansion of industry, and the increasing use of automobiles, the problem of air pollution becomes more critical each year. It is not only in our large urban areas that polluted air damages property and endangers health. Its impact is felt in many smaller agricultural and recreational areas where it damages farm crops, timber, and plants of all kinds.

To deal effectively with the threat of polluted air to our environment and lives, we must first apply the fullness of existing control technology to the sources of pollution. And second, we must seek new solutions to those technical difficulties which still stand in the way of adequate control. In the Clean Air Act, we have a mechanism to translate our scientific and technical knowledge into responsible social and political action. Under this act, both government and business have an unprecedented opportunity to cooperate in the fight against air pollution for the benefit of all Americans.

However, no legislation can accomplish its expressed purpose without the fullest support of the people. Cleaner Air Week serves to remind individual citizens of the responsibilities they must meet if we are to decontaminate the air we breathe. I commend the Air Pollution Control Association on its sponsorship of this annual call for a stronger civic commitment to purifying our air and prolonging our lives.