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source of air pollution must be cars and buses. Each day I make two round trips by car to the District, transporting my daughter to and from the Cathedral School. I am guilty of helping to clog the roadways during commuter hours but I can speak from first-hand experience about the miseries of standing or driving behind a bus which seems to be trying to expedite its way through traffic by asphyxiation of the drivers of the cars.

Are you familiar with the Somerset section of Bethesda, just north of the District of Columbia line off Wisconsin Avenue? Many of the Somerset residents have to close their windows in the summertime and take refuge inside, if they are not air conditioned, for the heavy odor of car exhausts from Wisconsin Avenue, even four blocks away, is nauseating. I would think this would be true of every heavily populated area bordering one of the major arteries leading into the District.

In my opinion, incinerators would probably be the secondary source of air pollution here. If you leave a clean car parked outside overnight or even for a few hours, it is incredible how much residue has collected on the roof. What impresses me even more is the amount of black ash that we forcefully have to scrub off the porch furniture each week during the months it is exposed to open air. And windowsills, of course, are far worse.

You gentlemen must find housewives' chatter boring, and with reason. But you have heard the TV commercial: "My wash is whiter than yours." Believe me, I know the sad truth that the wash is whiter if it is never hung outside. The bleaching qualities of sunlight are no match for the blackening qualities of the tiny soot particles which seem to fall from nowhere. And there are thousands of housewives not fortunate enough to own dryers.

I think that no storm, fire, or flood could damage as much property in a year as air pollution does. Consider the dollars and cents facts from one who inspects the clothing which seems to become dirty with little reason; the draperies, upholstery, and paint which become soiled too soon. The expense borne by the average family because of air pollution is considerable.

Speaking of expense brings to mind a mistake made by the Bruce family which I attribute not so much to stupidity as I do to air pollution. We had a beautiful pair of antique coach lamps wired, repaired, and polished and hung at each side of our front entrance. The old brass was certainly not made to contend with whatever chemicals are found in the air today, for in less than a year those coach lamps are badly pitted. I would advise anyone who has anything of value not to leave it out in the air. If I could do it over, I would hang the coach lamps inside.

What is more important than the expense, however, is the health problem.

In my own family, the effects of air pollution are felt most tragically. My father-in-law suffers from chronic bronchitis, aggravated by the condition of the air in the Metropolitan Washington area. He is incapacitated for several months of the year and can keep going only with the aid of expensive antibiotics. Because the condition is worsening, he has two choices at this point: Either to move to another climate or to an air-conditioned apartment, staying indoors as much

as possible in a filtered atmosphere. Neither choice he can afford nor wishes to do.

My uncle is in even worse condition with advanced stages of emphysema, also aggravated by pollutants in the air. He is almost 100 percent an invalid and gasps for every breath he takes.

My own case is not serious, thank goodness. It only points up the inconvenience suffered by the average citizen. Two years ago I thought I needed glasses because my eyes were constantly itching and were always red. You guessed it. No glasses at all; just drops for my eyes every 4 hours to counteract the effects of air pollution. Speaking for all average citizens, I know there is a problem. The solution will be expensive but we cannot afford not to solve it. I feel that any thinking citizen is willing to pay, for in the long run we are paying more for the damage than we would pay for the cure.

May I just thank you, in closing, for the great courtesy you have extended in granting me the privilege of hearing time. This is quite a new experience for me, for I am not at all a professional crusader, agitator, or petition carrier. I appreciate greatly the opportunity of expressing my thoughts to you.

If I am typical, we average Americans feel weighted down by the magnitude of this problem; we don't know where to turn for the solutions, except to our elected officials. We know you will provide us with the leadership we are seeking and we trust you to find the answers. Thank you.

Senator Tydings. Thank you very much, Mrs. Bruce. I must say this is exceedingly useful testimony. It is certainly not the type we generally hear. I appreciate your coming a great deal.

I have no questions.

Senator SPONG. Thank you very much, Mrs. Bruce.
Senator TYDINGS. We appreciate your being with us.

We will work on the problem.

Dr. Howard E. Heggestad, plant pathologist and leader, Plant Air Pollution Laboratory, Crops Research Division, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Md. We welcome you to our subcommittee.

I might suggest that you enter your statement in the record and that you proceed in any way you like.

STATEMENT OF HOWARD E. HEGGESTAD, PLANT PATHOLOGIST AND LEADER, PLANT AIR POLLUTION LABORATORY, CROPS RESEARCH DIVISION, AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, PLANT INDUSTRY STATION, BELTSVILLE, MD.

Mr. HEGGESTAD. Mr. Chairman, and members of the subcommittee. I believe the best thing we might do is first to devote some time to the table presented with my prepared statement (p. 45) and perhaps explain this just a little in detail.

The work at Beltsville with respect to air pollution effects began in 1958 essentially and it was at this time that we in various ways obtained enough evidence to say that ozone was the cause of our problem in the Beltsville area on tobacco.

We have continued to get supporting evidence. Also, at that time we were rather interested in learning something about the source of air pollution and I was fortunate that a meteorologist at the U.S. Weather Bureau contacted me about this. He happened to be located in the Washington area at the time.

We used rubber strips which is a good indicator of ozone. This rubber does not crack. It is of interest that John Middleton who was here before and guided us in some of our early work actually sent us the rubber strips-he suggested that I put them out for a week and get some idea of the amount of cracking. To my surprise, and I guess to his, too, we got cracking every day and we began to use this amount of cracking each day as an indicator of relative amounts of pollution that we might have.

We have other more sophisticated devices for measuring ozone than the rubber strips, but this cracking in rubber strips is really a good one and this type-it is a bent over strip, has no oxitant in it.

We stationed the rubber strips at various locations as indicated on this map each day a set of two we put out at each location. At Beltsville we measured ozone with what we called an ozone meter which gives us a continuous record.

The results of this study indicated that on the days with the highest ozone we had the most cracking of rubber, according to this table, 2.2 at Beltsville.

In the District of Columbia there is 1.24, which was less than the 2.29.

We look at Herndon, Centerville, Brandywine and the values here are essentially the same, about 1. This is a relative figure. We account for this rather low value in the District due to fact that the waste products of combustion have not really had time enough to react to product the maximum ozone that might be generated. This ozone is generated of course, the action of sunlight on some of the products have been indicated on the charts here. We also know that.

We also know when we talk about calm weather here we talk about slow moving air going out from one place to the other, 3 to 9 miles per hour on high value days. Our high ozone occurs in this area and most other areas where we have a slow flow of air. Consequently because we happen to be north-northeast of the District of Columbia we believe that our high value at Beltsville was accounted for by the fact that slow moving air with pollutants in it-the sunlight continued to generate ozone. The value at Silver Hill and the Tobacco Experimental Farm are about the same as in the District-a little bit higher, really. It is not shown but the value at Baltimore Airport was 1.87. Senator TYDINGS. Just what does it mean? What effect would this have on crops in Maryland and Virginia? What does it mean?

Mr. HEGGESTAD. The value is an index and actually at the time we have this figure of 2.29 we had 5 to 10 parts of a hundred millions of ozone and this is more than enough to affect crops.

Senator TYDINGS. That is what I want to get into. What does it mean? What does it do? You said it has more than enough to affect crops. What does it do to crops? What does 2.29 mean to the farmer in Prince Georges County who is raising tobacco, raising corn, or truck crops.

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Mr. HEGGESTAD. I assume you are familiar with the kind of injury that occurs on tobacco. This is very serious. Leaf damage to this extent would be worthless. In one case last year, August 1965, good growing conditions, I would say a fourth of this man's crop was lost due to air pollution.

Senator TYDINGS. This is in Prince Georges County?

Mr. HEGGESTAD. Anne Arundel County. Furthermore, the same concentrations of ozone that affect tobacco, we had listed a number of species of plants here on page 5 and they include almost any type of plant that you might consider growing in the area.

Now, the amount of injury was not evaluated at this point but the fact that the typical injury occurs is significant to us and this injury is sufficiently severe, so, in order to conduct air pollution studies at Beltsville which we are planning in our new laboratory, we find it necessary to take provisions to filter the air through carbon before it enters the greenhouses. This was the only way that we can prevent injury and have plants free of injury to go into fumigation chambers that we want to expose them to known concentrations.

Senator TYDINGS. Senator Spong and I spent some time at the University of California at Riverside going through their air-pollution tests on plants and the effects of those on plants. There was an article in the Baltimore Sun recently which said that—at least the inference was that if air pollution continues as it has, it is conceivable in the east coast all the truck farmers will have to grow their crops inside. Would you comment on that?

Mr. HEGGESTAD. I don't think we will reach that stage hopefullywe hope things will be done as we all hope to do, but all the crops like orchids certainly can't be grown without special provision, whether it is New Jersey or even in Washington.

Senator TYDINGS. Orchids cannot be grown in hothouses anymore because of air pollution?

Mr. HEGGESTAD. There has been little real study by our virologist at Beltsville very recently who had some orchids that were damaged due to air pollution which affected his study. I also understand, indirectly, that there is an orchid grower at Kensington, Md., who has some thoughts of moving out. I don't know how successful he has been. He has selected the more tolerant orchids for increase. This is our main hope for all plants, and actually there is a lot of work inadvertently going on that really, the plants that we have are for the most part the more tolerant ones and we can do a job even better by such studies as we plan, to select this more tolerant resistant plant.

We just accept the facts, we have to live with air pollution, and we need to identify some of the more resistant and tolerant plants. Senator TYDINGS. Senator Spong?

Senator SPONG. I do not have any questions. I think this gentleman's testimony affirms what we did hear at Riverside. How far is your experimental station from the District of Columbia?

Mr. HEGGESTAD. Actually it is only 6 miles from the District line, and it is a little closer than this map would indicate.

Senator SPONG. How far from Baltimore?

Mr. HEGGESTAD. About 25 miles. There is a point that is not made in this paper that I might call to your attention, in view of the interest in sulfur dioxide; and that is, we have conducted very limited

work where we exposed plants to sulfur dioxide and ozone together, and when this was accomplished we found considerable injury at such concentrations of the individual pollutant that would not damage these plants at all. We call it a synergistic effect. It is more than additive. It is one that helps the other. This is the situation we are faced with, although at the experimental station we used one toxic and one other. It is a cumulative effect that we must be concerned with.

Senator SPONG. What bothers us is that there is some feeling, although I do not think it is conclusive, that some of the hardware on automobiles in California, while doing something to arrest the carbon dioxide, is increasing the nitrogen oxide. This is what the people in your line of work are very much concerned with.

Mr. HEGGESTAD. You stated the problem very well. Until this is accomplished, some control over the nitrogen oxide, we can look to increased damage because we do have enough hydrocarbons around even from plants to an extent that can participate in this reaction to produce the ozone.

Senator SPONG. Thank you.

Senator TYDINGS. Do you have any figures or any estimate on the amount of crop damage done in say, the State of Maryland last year by pollution, a general estimate-air pollution?

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Mr. HEGGESTAD. There really are no figures. I would say that this one grower that we looked over had a fourth of his crops lost and he wasn't an isolated case. We saw that same year damage, in that same period, really within the year, damage in all of the tobacco producing counties. It was less, to be sure, at some places than others but it is a rather unfortunate thing in some ways that it is the better cropsthe growers who produce the better crops are the most sensitive. The ones who do the poor job, the ones with the poorer ones do not have so much.

Senator SPONG. With the tobacco industry having troubles of its own, I find it rather ironic that they are affected by air pollution.

Mr. HEGGESTAD. It is a useful indicator of air pollution and I agree with you.

Senator TYDINGS. Thank you very much, Mr. Heggestad. We appreciate your testimony before the subcommittee and your complete statement will be included in the record in its entirety at this point. (Statement referred to follows:)

STATEMENT OF HOWARD E. HEGGESTAD, PLANT PATHOLOGIST AND LEADER PLANT AIR POLLUTION LABORATORY, CROPS RESEARCH DIVISION, AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE PLANT INDUSTRY STATION, BELTSVILLE, MARYLAND

AIR POLLUTION INJURY TO AGRICULTURAL CROPS AND OTHER VEGETATION IN MARYLAND Research in 1958 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture at Beltsville, Maryland, and at the University of California, Riverside, where ozone fumigation studies were conducted by Dr. John Middleton and associates, proved for the first time that the inciting agent of tobacco weather fleck, a leaf spot disease, is high concentrations of the air pollutant ozone. Since 1954, and perhaps earlier, weather fleck in varying degrees of severity has been observed in tobacco plots at Beltsville, about 6 miles northeast of the District of Columbia line. The characteristic pattern of injury that ozone produces on tobacco and other plants can be distinguished from injury by other air pollutants and disease organisms. The lesions occur primarily on the upper leaf surface of recently mature leaves. Most of the leaf surface may be affected, and the whole leaf may

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