Air Pollution Blamed

◆ How bad is air pollution? It is now being blamed for more than half of all diseases suffered by man. This was the opinion of a Toronto surgeon, Dr. Joseph McKenna of York-Finch Hospital. McKenna linked increased air pollution with a 700-percent increase in the number of “respiratory cripples” in Toronto in the last 15 years.

Italy’s Smog Problem

◆ Visitors to Italy are seldom prepared to meet the smog problem. In Milan, the smog is so bad that many people go about with handkerchiefs around their heads to cover nose and mouth. At Mestre, near Venice, a reddish dust settled on parked automobiles one smog-filled winter day and literally ate holes in the paint. In the 1968-69 winter, 80 percent of the children of Milan suffered respiratory ailments. Leonardo da Vinci’s world-famous painting of the “Last Supper” reportedly was in danger of serious damage from smog residue settling on it. The Venetian lagoon is almost empty of all fish life because of pollution.