Chasing Smoke

Early in the campaign for clean air in Los Angeles, smog fighters snuffed out backyard incinerators. Whether the incinerators were ever in a league with power plants and refineries as sources of pollution is hard to say. But every little bit helped. And people who could only guess at what might be going on in research laboratories in the hunt for really big pollution controls could at least see by looking at a neighbor’s backyard that somebody was doing something about dirty air.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District is turning back the calendar to another symbol of early clean-air campaigns--smog patrols. They started in the 1950s, tracking down dirty diesels on trucks and buses, presumably looking for backsliding incinerators and generally making the fight against smog very visible. The last patrols were dropped in 1975.

Again it is difficult to know whether a plume of thick black diesel smoke billowing out of a bus and into your face at a street corner or into your car’s air-circulation system is in a league with the invisible poisons that come from millions of other vehicles. But diesel smoke would be odious even if it were not loaded with carcinogenic junk.

The district put five inspectors of its own on patrol this week. Next month, under contract with the district, California Highway Patrol officers will start flagging down vehicles with smoky exhaust pipes. They expect to write 20 times as many tickets for smoky tailpipes as they do now.

Part of the program is obviously aimed at getting violators off the road at least long enough to clean up their engines. Some of the program it is clearly consciousness-raising. The smog agency iis planning to ask all Southern Californians to pay more or break up their routines slightly as part of a new crackdown on air pollution. The smoke patrols will be visible evidence that everybody is in the same boat. And, besides, every little bit helps.