sun, cities and smog

Duration: 12:00

Complete Record: Description on canister All large cities and manufacturing areas have air pollution problems. This film concentrates on the Los Angeles area and shows the interlocking factors which create smog there and make it a serious menace to people, vegetation and property. Laboratory city ad at the Air Pollution Research Center in Riverside, California are used to explain and explore the problem. Time lapses photography shows how cool ocean mist moves in under clear warm morning air to cause an inversion layer which traps the nitric oxide (NO) in car exhaust fumes. Sunlight acts on NO in the atmosphere to create nitrogen dioxide (NO.2) and ozone. Laboratory experiments are used to show that ozone is a powerful oxidizing agent with toxic properties. Ozone reacts with the unburned hydrocarbons in car exhaust to form dangerous particles and the noxious brown gas we call smog. Dr. James Pitts, Jr. of the pioneering Air Pollution Research Center at the University of California, Riverside, explains the methods used there to analyze smog. The center employs outdoor testing and laboratory smog chambers which use a solar simulator. Test data is collected and plotted by computer. The results are used both to warn the population on days when smog levels are high and to find methods for reducing air pollution. Smog causes millions of dollars in crop damages annually, and its damaging effects on health may be even more serious that was previously believed. On going research into reducing smog and mitigating its effects is essential.