INTRODUCTION Public concern@ complaints of the agricultural industry@ and the continuing increase in the number of claimed losses have made it important to determine the value of losses to crops and ornamentals caused by air pollutants. This includes identifying the loses caused by each major pollutant and the geographical areas in which the losses are occurring. Some gross estimates have been made of economic losses due to air pollutants but@ for the most part@ these have been total estimates@ and no attempt has been made to distribute the aggregate loss among farm crops@ forests@ ornamental plantings and home gardens@ by pollutant or by geographical region. Thus@ the proportions of loss that can be ascribed to emissions from manufacturing operations@ smelting processes@ automobile exhausts@ and other sources are not known. The Coordinating Research Council@ a nonprofit organization@ entered into a contract with Stanford Research Institute to develop gross estimates of economic losses resulting from the effects of air pollutants on plants. The program is being monitored by the Coordinating Research Council's Air Pollution Research Advisory Committee (APRAC)@ a group of technical experts from industry and government. Program funding was made available by the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association (formerly the Automotive Manufacturers Association)@ the American Petroleum Institute@ and the Environmental Protection Agency. This is the final report of the project. The objectives of the entire study were to develop a model for estimating dollar losses to vegetation resulting from the effects of pollutants@ and to make such estimates. To date@ two previous reports have appeared. The first one@ dated August 1970@ was mainly devoted to description of the method or model that was developed and the background information that led to its development. The technique@ as developed@ consists of the following steps: (1) Determine the location by county of potential plant-damaging concentrations of ozone@ PAN@ oxides of nitrogen@ sulfur dioxide@ and hydrogen fluoride@ as indicated by sources of hydrocarbons@ oxides of nitrogen@ sulfur dioxide@ and hydrogen fluoride. (2) Estimate the relative concentration of plant-damaging pollution potential of the above pollutants in these countries@ based on the amount of emissions of the sources into the atmosphere and the capabilities of meteorological conditions to concentrate them. (3) Determine the dollar value of crops and ornamentals in the pollution-threatened country. (4) Based on their relative sensitivity@ determine the percentage loss to each crop and ornamental that is likely to occur under different plant-damaging pollution potentials calculated in No. 2. (5) Multiply@ in each country@ the value of each crop by the percentage of loss expected under the pollution conditions in each country for each pollutant. Then integrate individual crop losses into a total for the country; then sum county values for state@ region and country. The second report@ dated November 1971 (although not issued until June 1972)@ described improvements in the model and gave vegetation loss estimates for 1964 crops as related to 1963 emission data. This final report describes additional improvements in the model and gives estimates of vegetation losses in 1969 based on 1967 emission data. Losses to vegetation that occurred in 1971 were extrapolated from trends in emission between 1963 and 1967 and from crop values of 1971.
API 4196-1973 history
1973API 4196-1973 ASSESSMENT OF ECONOMIC IMPACT OF AIR POLLUTANTS ON VEGETATION IN THE UNITED STATES: 1969 AND 1971 - FINAL REPORT