Pollution found at the Pole

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32789, 14 December 1971, Page 20

Pollution found at the Pole

(From ALTON BLAKESEE of the Associated Press, through N.Z.P.A.)

SOUTH POLE STATION, Dec 13. The most unpolluted region of the world, Antarctica, is being contaminated by pollutants from the Northern Hemisphere.

Most kinds of pollutants found in large cities are being identified at the bottom of the world, says one scientist who is wintering over at the Pole station to study the spread of pollution.

One purpose of his study, is to determine how much and how widely airborne pollutants are spreading around the earth and what influence this may have on world climate. Pollutants in the atmosphere might reduce sunlight and heat, decrease the layer of ozone that blocks out dangerous amounts of the sun’s ultraviolet light or have other effects. Just one of the projects of Dr Vernon Rumble, of Colorado, involves relationships between ozone and Sollutants; he finds a small ut significant recent increase m such pollutants as sulphur dioxide. Earlier, scientists working elsewhere in the Antarctic found traces of D.D.T. in penguins and increasing

deposition of lead in snow falling over the last 25 years. Dr Rumble also is measuring the inward and outward flow of heat from the sun for evidence on whether a new Ice Age might be coming. However, the earth seems to be maintaining its present temperature, he says.

Other scientists are trying to measure amounts of trace metals such as aluminium, ‘ nickel and chlorine in the atmosphere and tiny particulate matter high in the stratosphere.