A Multimedia Approach to Pollution Control: Cross-Media Problems

Abstract

The conference on pollutant transport and accumulation in a multimedia environment is of great importance because, to my knowledge, it is the first time that the most distinguished scientists working on transport and accumulation have been brought together to focus specifically on cross-media transfer of pollutants. The conference is one, but by no means the only sign that a new view of environmental problems is beginning to take hold. We are recognizing that the environment must be considered as a whole, that scientific and regulatory approaches alike must take into account the complex interactions that make any one-medium approach at best partial and at worst counter-productive.