City and state officials and civic leaders met Thursday with representatives of the United States Public Health Service to discuss New Orleans' participation in a new air pollution study.
The meeting was held in the board room of the Louisiana state board of health. Dr. Jj^J^gein, president of the state board of health, presided.
Under discussion was a new public health service program designed to provide continuous data
on the gaseous pollution of air New Orleans is one of six citie in the nation chosen to participat in this study.
ROLE OUTLINED
At the meeting, Elbert C Tabor, Cincinnati, Ohio, chief o: the national air sampling network section of the Community Ail Pollution .program, outlined New Orleans' role in the study.
Plans for the study, he said, cal for the erection of a one-story 20 by 20 foot building in an open area near the center of the business district. The public health service will pay all construction maintenance and utilities costs he said.
Dr. Rein appointed a committee from those at the meeting to study possible sites for the air sampling
station.
COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Named to the committee were Bernard J. McCloskey, director of the city department of safety and permits; Dr. W. P. Gardiner, director of the New Orleans health department; Malcolm de la Houssaye, air pollution committee of the Chamber of Commerce of the New Orleans area and Tabor.
Working with them will be William Et Holy, Dallas, Tex., public health service regional engineer, and Warren H. Reinhart, chief of
the occupational health and safety
section of the state board of health.
Several sites were noted at the meeting as possible locations. These included the United States Customhouse bldg., 423 Canal, the area around Canal st. and Clai-borne and the area around Poy-dras and Canal st.
McCloskey said the -committee expected to make its recommendations early next week. CONGRESS FUNDS
Earlier in the meeting, Tabor explained the program was financed by a Congressional appropriation to investigate how air; pollution might be related to automobile exhausts.
The,program, however, would not directly study automobile exhausts by placing a machine behind an exhaust, he said. It would investigate those fumes :hat might be derived from automobile exhausts, Tabor said.
The final report would relate air pollution to automobile exhausts, he said.
The public health service
plans to install at least $25,000 worth of equipment in the station, he said.
ASKS COOPERATION
In calling for local co-opera-
ion, Tabor said that this was
not "just a P. H. S. project"
He asked that everyone inter-
sted locally co-operate and get
some good out of the study.
Discussing plans for the station, he said, "We do not want a shack. "This is going to be a showpiece. We want a decent builriinp' "
The ideal building would be located in the center of an open area about the size of a city block, he said. Intakes for the instruments, Tab^r said, would be about 12 feet above the ground because people live below this level. >
Tabor pointed out that the I possibility of occupying suitable quarters in an already-erected building had not been ruled out.
FULLTIME EMPLOYE The operation of the station, he explained, would require the full-time employment of one man to check the automatic equipment at regular intervals, to check chemical solutions and to send the data to the project headquarters in Cincinnati.
Tabor said that it was "strongly recommended" that I the operation of the station, including the provision of the full-time employe, be accepted locally. The city will be able to use
the information from the charts of the machines, he said. In ad-! dition, visitors could be brought to see the station.
WILL RUN 12 MONTHS
Under present plans, Tabor said, the machines would be turned on July 1 and would run continuously for 12 months.
The city department of safety and permits and the state board of health will co-ordinate the project in New Orleans.
Others attending the meeting
include Leo Vivien, chief of the city's division of regulatory inspections; J. C. Newitt, secretary-treasurer of the state board of health; and Sheldon Hane-mann, hygiene engineer with the state board of health.
In a prior announcement of the program, Reinhart had said that New Orleans was chosen be cause the state board of health has had several years of experience in air pollution sampling here. PHOTO: PARTICIPATION OF NEW ORLEANS in a new air pollution study is discussed by these officials: (from left) Dr. W J Rein, president of the Louisiana state board of health; Elbert C. Tabor, U.S. Public Health Service/Cincinnati, Ohio; Warren H. Reinhart, chief of the occupational health and safety section of the state board of health; Bernard J. McCloskey, director of the city department of safety and permits, and Dr. W. P. Gardiner, director of the New Orleans health department.
