Tokyo Threatened 11 11 lUlling By Pollution Bt liming Tib
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By HOR S MICHAEL HORNSBY
p th of The Times London Di Dispatch LONDON In th LONDO st the summer suf of this year Tokyo'ss long longsuflongsuf-fering fering citizens t.texperienced new of a taste and T first theIr th ir lira most unpleasant hazard PhoPho Th o phenomtochemical smog This m Los Angeenon Ange iNo In non known also hydrooccurs when hydro It Its occur irl ins and nitrogen oxides carbons fumes in car exhaust fume rcontained i sunire subjected to strong sun very ht It is m or ven isible invisible hlight but deadly nearly The Tokyo sharprp sharpirp Tok version shsharp en enedd by ba es bv noxious sulphur bases v summersummer borne on southerly souther indusco sta I indus winds from the coastal industrial zones lones of Kawasaki and particularlYokohama proved particularparticular yly vicious The winds were selselsel selsel dom strong enough to clear the still humid air of the capital It self itself The first evidence of the disdisdis agreeable properties of the thatnew hazard was a report that a group of children playing inin schoolyard had trouble 3a breathing and begun falling faning down In the days and weeks i at followed that thousands of people had to be treated in Tokyo hospitals for painfully rore eyes ore smarting and sore eves
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A system of smog warnings quickly- established On bad was quickly days radio and television ananan loudno nouncers and touring loudloud restresispeaker vans exhorted rest resi modents to stay stav indoors and mo
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to leaveears at leave their cars home Children were advised not to play in the open air air Pollution is now just another m. aspect of living m in Tokyo Kamo the director Kaino ot enCenenof the Pollution Research Cen Cenen ter foresees the day when the pedestrian will carry a gasgas ummask as naturally as an um urn brella He has predicted that brella air pollution will increase vears times in the next 10 years A Tokyo department store ng a brisk trade doing has been do portsince August in small portport gen generators able oxygen o s cedars and Many of Toky Tokyo's city'ss pines are dying in the city polluted air air Animals and birds that have died at Tokyo zoo have been found to have comcomcom pletely blackened lungs I he on human The have been under study since 1966 Many cases of bronchial chronic bronchitis asthma pulmonary emphysema and other respiratory diseases are thought to be closely related to air pollution The government has only very belatedly begun to take any action Early last year vear disdislimits were set on the disdis dis charge of sulphur dioxide by befactories But industry is bebe ing allowed a leisurely 10 years vears to conform to the new standards Office buildings are not affected at all though this may be taken winter measures mav against them for the first
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badAU Air pollution may bt bad mav be TokWater pollution is worse TokTok yo is threaded with innumerable small rivers and canals whose water area is about 5S per cent of the total area of the city With the exception of the Edo and the upper reaches of the Tama the Tokyo'ss tap main sources of Tokyo water all are arc too polluted to keep fish fis alive Some like ase are little more than Ayase the Ay fool smelling open sewers foul It is not just a question of domesindustrial waste Much domes domestic sewage is also discharged directly into rivers Only about 40 per cent of houses in metropolitan Tokyo and land less than 10 per cent in the rapidly conexpanding suburbs are concon nected to a public drainage S-
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system Tokyo Bay into which the rivers run and round whose shores industrial complexes cluster duster is slowly becoming a huge cesspool Fish in which the bay used to abound have canIrom canbeen found suffering from can cer and other deformities Large quantities of cadmium mercury- were discovered and mercury in sludge dredged this year vear from the sea bed off Yokohail ma It was traced to the il-ilma il legal dumping of industrial m waste Many rivers in Japan are already gravely polluted by cadmium and mercury N. Y Times News Service N