Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 27, 1994 TAG: 9401270065
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Parts of the United States and Europe showed declines between 1965 and 1990 in atmospheric concentrations of particles that neutralize acid, researchers said.
The declines appear to have offset significant portions of the environmental benefit from reduced acid pollution, researchers said.
Success in reducing industrial pollution may have caused the decline in the acid-neutralizing "base cations," researchers said.
Base cations are positively charged particles of calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium. They are cast into the atmosphere by industrial processes including coal-burning and construction that raises dust.
Particles that are regulated by environmental laws carry base cations. Reductions in these particles parallel the fall in base cation concentrations, researchers said.
But the cause of the decline in base cations (pronounced KAT-ions) is not known for certain, said study co-author Lars Hedin of Michigan State University.
The study did not look at whether the reductions are harming the environment, but the atmospheric findings do raise that possibility, he said. The reductions might be depriving some acid-sensitive forest land of an important defense, he said.
The co-authors report their findings in today's issue of the journal Nature.
It's hard to decide just what to do, because scientists do not know how much base cations were emitted or deposited on the ground before they started declining, nor how important they were in neutralizing acid, said Charles Driscoll, professor of environmental engineering at Syracuse University in New York.
by CNB