Explores problems and doubts regarding the extent to which air pollution must be reduced to eliminate further suffering and death. The adequacy of our present approach to air pollution control is evaluated together with an assessment of unknown factors affecting standards for a healthful environment. (BL)

Reports findings of the Global Environment Monitoring System study concerning air pollution in the world's megacities. Discusses sources of air pollution, air pollution impacts, air quality monitoring, air quality trends, and control strategies. Provides profiles of the problem in Beijing, Los Angeles, Mexico City, India, Cairo, Sao Paulo, and…

Nonpoint source pollution, water pollution not released at one specific identifiable point, now accounts for 50 percent of the nation's water pollution problem. Runoff is the primary culprit and includes the following sources: agriculture, mining, hydrologic modifications, and urban runoff. Economics, legislation, practices, and management of this…

This article, the sixth installment in Environment's "Looking Back" series, traces the woes of America's industrialized cities to the movement that developed cities primarily as centers for industrial enterprise rather than as places for people to live. Today's social ills, from pollution to poverty, developed from that movement. (BT)

Describes an attempt to develop an instrument based on subjectively derived data, capable of assessing and classifying human communities according to social climate. The strengths of the scale are discussed as well as the types of data that might be collected to further test the instrument. (Author/SA)

Described are the patterns of air pollution in certain large urban areas. Persons in poverty, in occupations below the management or professional level, in low-rent districts, and in black population are most heavily exposed to air pollution. Pollution paradoxically is largely produced by high energy consuming middle-and upper-class households.…