AIR we breathe.

Abstract

The effects of community and industrial air pollution upon human health have been studied by laboratory investigators, epidemiologists, and other interested persons mostly as a subject apart from the individual air pollution of tobacco smoking. The author of this small text was one of the first, if not the first, to recognize the fundamental similarity of these two sources of airborne poisoning and their apparent synergistic action. In a concise and well-written monograph, Dr. Mills critically reviews much of the available evidence, including a great deal of his own work, regarding the harmful effects of both forms of air pollution. While he particularly stresses the relationship of all forms of air pollution to lung cancer, he is also deeply concerned with the pathogenesis of chronic bronchitis and emphysema and with the considerably increased mortality from other major diseases, especially cardiovascular diseases, related to air pollution. The section on maximum allowable