Week's Watch

Where does a city's air pollution go? Most scientists believe it eventually becomes diluted by winds or is washed to the earth's surface by rain. Last week Biophysicist William A. Curby offered another, more alarming answer at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association. After sampling the air three times a day during the past two summers, Curby and his associates at Sias Laboratories in Brookline, Mass., discovered that auto exhaust and industrial fumes create a new atmospheric phenomenon--a layer of "dead sky" composed of tiny, concentrated particles. Unmoved by either wind or rain, the ever thickening mass of filth hovers over Boston--and presumably other cities. The stagnant cloud has a faint silver lining: while making Boston's rain heavier, it will divert major storms from the city. The researchers do not yet know the dead sky's effect on human health.

Rebuffed by Congress in his attempts to hike taxes on leaded gasoline. President Nixon last week issued an executive order that all federally owned vehicles must use no-lead or low-lead gas. His theory is excellent; such fuels reduce hydrocarbon emissions polluting the air by as much as 20%. But in effect, Washington was merely setting a good example. The Federal Government's 600,000 cars burn only one-half of 1% of the nation's yearly consumption of 85 billion gallons of gas--and 276,000 of those official cars have high-compression engines that cannot use low-lead gas. Though Nixon urged all Governors to follow suit, no state or local government has given any sign of adopting a similar rule.

Boosterism is dying in Arizona. Meeting at the Grand Canyon, an ad hoc group of 96 leading citizens called "Town Hall" voted surprisingly to stop spending public funds to attract new industry and residents to the state. Reason: a surfeit of success. While Arizona's 20-year boom has brought immediate economic benefits, it is also impairing the state's natural beauty and resources. Though it has no official power, the group wants to conserve the state for future inhabitants. Urging more government attention to the environment, it recommends specific bans on billboards, nonreturnable bottles and detergents that do not break down in nature. As Town Hall sees it, Arizonans must heed the lesson that rampant growth is not synonymous with progress.

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