Free The Smog by John Creasey Page B

fast.
    â€œSeventy-one,” he echoed. “Seventeen more than at the last count. Is Los Angeles still in the lead?”
    â€œBarely.”
    â€œWhich city has caught up?”
    â€œTokyo,” she answered. “London, Milan, Oslo—”
    â€œ Oslo! ”Palfrey exclaimed.
    â€œYes,” answered Joyce quietly. “Chicago, New York, Denver, Colorado, Lucerne—”
    â€œMy God,” exclaimed Palfrey.
    â€œGlasgow—” Joyce broke off. “You can see all the reports, Sap. There’s no doubt that pollution in the atmosphere has increased ominously in the past month.”
    Palfrey nodded, slowly, fearfully.
    For weeks, now, he had been studying the effect of this pollution – rather loosely defined as smog – not only on people but on plant life, and there was nothing remotely reassuring. It was so much on the increase, not only in the major industrial cities, where it might be expected, but in small cities, like Lucerne. Reports of the higher density had been coming in for a long time, and the official government and industrial research units could offer no explanation. The report had been both vivid and terrifying. It had come from Dr. Erasmus Smith, whom Palfrey had since met, Professor of the Oxford Foundation for Air Purity.
    He had said:
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    â€œThe progressive contamination of the atmosphere by gases from oil, petrol and coal threatens the future of mankind. Anyone who doubts this is ignorant of the facts. Already the health of most people in city and manufacturing areas is affected. My estimate (see charts) shows a 10% loss of efficiency as a direct result. This, no doubt, the economy could stand. However, there is much worse. Respiratory diseases, leading to death as well as partial or total disability, have startlingly increased. Cancer is also a direct result, both to animal and human. Vegetation – which means food – is also seriously affected. Some areas have a productivity loss of 50% from their smog-free potential. The increasingly adverse effect on metals, stone and rubber has now been proved beyond doubt.
    â€œThis is the normal estimate of progressive contamination. Many of the instances investigated, however, are far from normal. In some cases the density of contamination is at least five times above normal. This suggests an additionally malignant cause. Either some new constituent, in some form or another, has been introduced to one of the factors, or – an even greater threat – the amount of pollution is now so great as to cause some chemical reaction in the sun’s rays, new to science. This photo chemical smog, if it increases at the same rate as it has in specified areas (see chart) for the next twelve months, could increase the death-rate by over 500%.
    â€œI am not joking. In my considered view smog is becoming a killer-gas against which there is no defence. Physicists everywhere in the world are working day and night to find if there is a natural cause of the startling increases. It is for the authorities to seek out any other, man-made, cause, and stamp it out. Better that the rate of human social progress should be delayed by a decade or so, than that civilisation should be wiped out.”
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    Country after country had turned to Palfrey and Z5 to find if there were a man-made source, and the nations, through U.N.O., had taken the almost unprecedented step of putting all their resources of research, police and security at the Department’s disposal. There were local and national conferences, at various levels; and one was to be held here, at Z5’s headquarters, this evening.
    So far, there had been no clues; nothing except the continuing and terrifying rate of increase in air pollution even in areas normally clear. But never before had there been a report of anything like the concentrated pollution at Sane. And never before had the once-thought ‘alarmist’ prophecies of Professor Smith