Challenge and Choice in Pollution Abatement

Pollution which is the obvious destroyer of our precious natural resources takes many forms. Nearly all of man’s activities contribute to the pollution of water, air and soil. For many years, technological and social responses to pollution have been governed by the view that most pollutants which exhibit an immediate and gross effect are serious hazards. In the last few years, there has been a sudden change in social concern with the newer types of chemical pollutants and their cumulative effects. This change reflects an earlier inadequacy in the coupling of knowledge to pollution handling technology. It is in this realm that we must look for the sources of our failure to anticipate the weak points in our basic understanding of the problems.