- 3to find out what really caused "smog" in the Los Angeles area. Thus hegan a
long and expensive research program. The Western Oil and Gas Association
has done a great deal to advance the knowledge ahout "smog" formation, and,
in addition, has been able to catalog pollutants from operations of the oil
industry in the Los Angeles area. It has been found that oil industry operations make only a small contribution to the over-all pollution problem.
The oil industry soon realized that proper decisions with regard to
the control of atmospheric pollutants could not be made without accurate,
scientific information. In instances where legislation is regarded as necessary, fundamental knowledge based on reliable research rather than on theory
or hypothesis or opinion should be available to government agencies to avert
restrictive and uneconomic rulings of the type which might later prove to
be unnecessary.
Accordingly, in 1951 "t^e entire U.S. petroleum industry determined
to supplement the already considerable efforts of its West Coast members in
air pollution research. Through the Division of Refining of the American
Petroleum Institute, a "Smoke and Fumes Committee" was established to set
up a program to determine factually the causes and methods of control of
atmospheric pollution resulting from production, transportation, manufacture, and use of petroleum products. Research projects were established at
qualified research centers to obtain fundamental knowledge of the mechanisms leading to air pollution. To date, the API's research expenditures
in this field have exceeded $1 .3 million, and the work is continuing at a
substantial level. The combined expenditures of the API, the Western Oil
and Gas Association, and numerous individual companies result in an estimated total of more than $1 million per year being spent by the petroleum
industry for research in the air pollution field. The following examples
illustrate the type of work being done.
At the Franklin Institute research into the nature of chemical reactions in the air leading to atmospheric pollution has produced outstanding
results. The design and construction of the long-path infrared spectrometer (popularly known as "Silent Sam, the Smog Detective") has placed a tool
in the hands of scientists to permit measurement of materials in the atmosphere at concentrations in the parts per million range. The Franklin Institute studies have substantiated earlier findings that hydrocarbons and oxides
of nitrogen in the presence of oxygen react under the influence of sunlight
to form ozone. In the course of these investigations, a new organic compound, peroxyacyl nitrite ("Compound X") was identified. It was originally
suspected as the material responsible for eye irritation, but subsequent
research has shown it to be an intermediate compound in atmospheric
reactions.
Oxident-type damage to vegetation is one of the manifestations of
"smog." This damage is unique and is believed to be caused by oxidized
organic materials. The damaging substance has not yet been identified, but
API-sponsored research at the University of California at Riverside is in
progress to study the reactions of ozone and hydrocarbons in an attempt to
identify the materials responsible.
As mentioned earlier, sulfur compounds have long been recognized as
sources of air pollution. Sulfuric acid aerosol has been suggested as one
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Source: http://industrydocuments.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/nycm0047