problems, if this were not an age of greatly increased scientific knowledge to understand, management skills to organize and operate, and technology to accomplish virtually any task, once it is identified. The fortuitous situation of having the power to cope with the problem should stimulate the courage and willpower to get on with the job. 4. Multiple Bases for Policy The web of life is a single system but it is dealt with in segments, out of necessity. This fragmented approach is due to the practical aspects of localized environments and short time periods. The difficulty of comprehending the entire biosphere also means that the total effect on environmental quality is probably greater than the summation any individual can make of particular deteriorations (wildlife losses, pollution, visibility, noise, litter, etc.) (see pp. 25 and 524). The bases for policy are also numerous. Human health is discussed at length in section C (p. 16). The resource approach ranks the various uses of environments and attempts to improve the case for management decisions by arranging multiple-use plans. The market approach fails for two reasons: first, it is very difficult to quantify in dollar terms many of the values of environmental quality. Second, the axiom that a unit of profit is more valuable now than at any time in the future leads to short-sightedness in environmental management. 5. Systematic Ecology The new basis for policy is in addition to existing bases. It is an increased ecological understanding plus the analytical approach for coping with large complex systems. Systematic ecology attempts to replace mystique and lore with facts, mathematical models, and computerized manipulation in order to evaluate alternative actions. It is a long way from being able to do the entire job. The apparent sophistication of the methodology causes reactive opposition in many persons-a distrust of what they cannot understand. Ecological management requires a baseline of factual observations of the way things are in nature-preferably before any substantial man-made changes. The international biological program will (if it is successfully funded and executed) provide a great increase in these data from field investigations. The second requirement is accurate mathematical models of the interrelations in the biosphere. These equations can be manipulated by a computer so that many variables may be studied. For example, sometime soon, a model of the earth's meteorology may be available. Then various rates of fossil fuel combustion and the resulting carbon dioxide in the air could be simulated. Simultaneously, values for atmospheric reflectivity due to particular pollution could be introduced. The complex question of whether the earth might cool off or warm up could at least be examined before predictions of extinction were broadcast. More mundane problems of agriculture, pest control, wildlife harvests, and fish catches may be organized and analyzed via systematic ecology. The outcome of proposed geographical manipulations may be forecast (for example, a sea level Panama Canal, a channel through the outer banks of North Carolina, the damming of Long Island Sound). Algal growth in a lake or estuary is probably due to many factors, some working in concert and others canceling out. The control of eutrophication of these waters could be planned by a systematic ecological evaluation. The best location for powerplants, rights-ofway, certain industries, even future cities might be revealed by this expanded view of the landscape. 6. International Implications Environmental management will often transcend national borders and even continental limits. The bad management decisions in one country can affect the ecology of another. It may be said that values must be equilibrated internationally for the ultimate scheme to work. That is, in a competitive worldwide economy, if one nation places more emphasis on long-term environmental quality (at the expense of short-term profits) than does another, then the first may suffer in international trading exchange. The worldwide implication is for extensive cooperation in information and in action programs (see p. 15). Values differ among countries, and so do the demands on the environment. The United States can learn much from the longer industrial history of northern Europe. But this does not mean that their environmental quality situation is better than ours nor would be acceptable in this country (see p. 167). The atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons is an example of international management of environmental quality. Because of the biological effects of radioactive fallout, an international test ban treaty was signed by the United States, the U.S.S.R. and Great Britain. The gains for environmental quality are not realized, however, when China and France continue to detonate nuclear devices in the atmosphere. The debris from a test anywhere in the world is certain to contaminate countries other than the one conducting the test. Similar worldwide mobility of environmental contaminants is noted for pesticides in the oceans, carbon dioxide and particulate matter in air, and the triggering of high altitude cirrus cloud formation by jet aircraft exhaust (see p. 337). (These examples may not all have the same significance but are representative of the forecasts of some environmental observers.) Aldous Huxley has suggested that an international program in ecological management would be a substitute for war: Power politics, nationalism, and dogmatic ideology are luxuries that the human race can no longer afford. Nor, as a species, can we afford the luxury of ignoring man's ecological situation. By shifting our attention from the now completely irrelevant and anachronistic politics of nationalism and military power to the problems of the human species and the still inchoate politics of human ecology we shall be killing two birds with one stone-reducing the threat of sudden destruction by scientific war and at the same time reducing the threat of more gradual biological disaster." C. THE BASIS FOR POLICY 1. The Definition of Health The personal, subjective nature of environmental quality is due to human health relationships. A threat to health from a contaminant 10 The Politics of Ecology-The Question of Survival, Aldous Huxley, Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, Santa Barbara, Calif., 1963, p. 6. arouses a much more intense interest than any esthetic, economic, or social impact. But health covers a broad spectrum of conditions and is dependent on the individual or selected population which is being studied. Health may be primarily associated with a minimum nutritional requirement, or simply the ability to work, in societies which are very poor. Health may be a description of the conditions for survival with the barest amenities and consideration of longevity. Today in the United States, and indeed according to the World Health Organization of the United Nations, human health is extended to include "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." Environmental quality legislation often expresses this broadened definition as the public health and welfare. The Public Health Service (see p. 458) has interpreted environmental quality to be good enough when : 1. The health of even sensitive or susceptible segments of the population would not be adversely affected; 2. Concentrations of pollutants would not cause an annoyance, such as the sensation of unpleasant tastes or odors; 3. Damage to animals, ornamental plants, forests, and agricultural crops would not occur; 4. Visibility would not be significantly reduced; 5. Metals would not be corroded and other materials would not be damaged; 6. Fabrics would not be soiled, deteriorated, or their colors affected; 7. Natural scenery would not be obscured. California recognizes adverse, serious, and emergency levels in the effects of community air pollution on sensitive groups of people (see p. 106). However, Rene Dubos states "we are adapting to environmental pollutants that damage physical health and spoil the quality of life. *** The point of importance here is that the worst pathological effects of environmental pollutants will not be detected at the time of exposure; indeed they may not become evident until several decades later." 11 Thus the subcommittee has been presented with an entirely new definition of health. Not only may health extend beyond considerations of disease but it extends in time over the whole life of an individual and even to genetic effects which appear only in the offspring of persons exposed now to degraded environmental quality. This new concept is difficult to comprehend, let alone use in legislation. 2. Cause-and-Effect Relationships Historically, public health laws have been built upon cause-andeffect relationships furnished by medical science. This straight forward approach justifies the control of environmental quality "A" to prevent human health effect "B." An extension of this "etiologic" thinking is the dose-response relationship wherein varying duration of exposure to varying concentration may result in a response in individuals ranging from irritation to serious illness or death. 11 "Adapting to Pollution," Rene Dubos, Scientist and Citizen, January-February, 1968. 94-613 0-68- 4 Some departure from the strict "A causes B" concept has already been accepted in sanitary engineering practice and the administration of public health laws. For example, the specification of coliform count for public bathing waters is not based on the danger to human health per se, of the coliform bacteria. Rather, this micro-organism is used as an indicator that other (less easily identified) pathogenic organisms may be present. The recent regulation of cigarette advertising and other attempts to deal with the smoking-lung cancer problem represent a further departure in Federal policy. The evidence that smoking can cause lung cancer is insufficient for direct prohibitive legislation. Other factors can be responsible and the circumstantial, statistical nature of the evidence can never be equal to the classical adage of one agent-one disease. The personal hygiene choice in smoking or not has been used as an argument against Government regulation. Evidence may be developed that nonsmokers in a poorly ventilated room (or airplane cabin) may also be affected. The vested interests of the tobacco industry and the addictive nature of the smoking habit add to the difficulties of dealing with this health problem via regulations. However, the law does require the statement on every package of cigarettes: "Caution, cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health." These examples show that causes which are separated from effects by long time periods or by intricate mechanisms, or by a multiplicity of interactions, constitute a class of health hazards which confound the protective role of Government. The complex situation could be illustrated endlessly in the modern urban environment. Rather than one contaminant in air or water, there are many. They conceivably may interact to produce a synergistic, enhanced (greater than merely additive) effect. They may even be antagonistic or neutralize one another (see p. 480). 3. Causative or Aggravative Agents An additional problem is whether environmental health hazards cause disease or aggravate an already existing condition (see pp. 17, 96. 115). If aggravation is the main effect then the priority for public health attention would go to the primary cause. On the other hand, there will always be a certain degree of disability (e.g., respiratory infection) in a population so that aggravating environmental effects will always find ready victims (see p. 460). At the present time it would appear that air pollution episodes do not "kill." However, there is no doubt that as a result of such exposures, persons already debilitated by emphysema, bronchitis, asthma, and so forth, may have their lungs irritated further by the gases and particles in polluted air. This combination of preexisting illness and pollution aggravation is often enough to bring death before it would occur from the respiratory disease alone (see p. 141). The "excess mortality" period associated with an air pollution episode is often followed by a period of less than average mortality, indicating that the aggravation has had an effect on those persons who were seriously ill.12 This observation is not to be taken to minimize the impact of air pollution but does illustrate the difference between cause and aggravation. A policy to control aggravating environmental ef 12 Air Quality Act of 1967, report of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, U.S. House of Representatives, Oct. 3, 1967, p. 4. fects would also include snowstorms, heat waves, pollen, et cetera. However, air pollution is unique in that it is in part man-made, abetted by meteorological phenomena. Public health records are inadequate to sort out the complexities described in this section. Mortality and morbidity reports can do little more than prove that there is an "urban factor" at work in our society. According to some vital statisticians, persons have better health and greater longevity if they live in rural areas than do city dwellers. The deciphering of this urban factor will support Ph. D. theses and researchers in both social and natural science for many years to come. The legislator cannot be optimistic about having neat, quantified results available soon. An example of the difficulty of a health-based policy in environmental quality management is the location of the solid wastes program in the Public Health Service. In an attempt to tie the solid wastes problem to public health a contract was let for a comprehensive literature survey. The resulting report concluded: The literature fails to supply data which would permit a quantitative estimate of any solid waste/disease relationship. The circumstantial and epidemiologic information presented does support a conclusion that, to some diseases, solid wastes bear a definite, if not well-defined, etiologic relationship. The tenuous connection implied in this conclusion (definite, if not well defined?) suggests that a more forthright approach to solid wastes management and control could be achieved under a different organization (see p. 286). 4. Chronic and Acute Effects Duration of exposure and the concentration of contaminant determine the health effect of an environmental hazard. The senses of smell, taste, sight, and touch are useful for brief and severe (acute) pollution concentrations. But many contaminants are quickly effective at concentrations below the threshold of human detection. The body of knowledge built up for industrial hygiene purposes should be more useful to environmental quality criteria setting than has so far been evidenced. Most air and water pollutants occur in industrial processes in addition to the ambient atmosphere and surface streams. Because of workmen's compensation laws detailed analyses are available for many pollutants as to the response of workers to exposures for 40 hour workweeks over an entire career. The working environment is closely controlled to meet the resulting standards. The practice of industrial hygiene has generated extensive data on the actual exposure of human beings to pollutants. Lead, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide in air, for example, have been exhaustively studied in industry. The concentrations and cumulative exposure times are relevant to urban atmospheric pollution (see p. 140). An argument is made by some public health officials that the total population cannot be judged by the results from the selected population of workers, for the latter are likely to be in good health and in the middle years of life. Nevertheless, the facts that industrial hygiene data are for human beings rather than animals, and are for substantial exposure times, and are for concentrations usually higher than those in the community, make these standards useful benchmarks for judg ing ambient environmental quality. |