Air quality and air pollution control are tasks of international concern
as, for one, air pollutants do not refrain from crossing borders and,
for another, industrial plants and motor vehicles which emit air
pollutants are in widespread use today. In a number of the world's
expanding cities smog situations are a frequent occurrence due to the
number and emission-intensity of air pollution sources. Polluted air
causes annoy- ances and can, when it occurs in high concentrations in
these cities, constitute a seri- ous health hazard. How important clean
air is to life becomes apparent when consid- ering the fact that humans
can do without food for up to 40 days, without air, how- ever, only a
few minutes. The first step towards improving the air quality situation
is the awareness that a sound environment is as much to be aspired for
as the development of new tech- nologies improving the standard of
living. Technical progress should be judged es- pecially by how
environmentally benign, clean and noiseless its products are. Of these
elements, clean air is of special concern to me. I hope that this book
will awaken more interest in this matter and that it will lead to new
impulses. Due to the increasing complexity of today's machinery and
industrial processes science and technology can no longer do without
highly specialized design engineers and opera- tors. Environmental
processes, however, are highly interdependent and interlinked.