Health Effects of Acid Rain: Are There Any?

THE SCIENTIFIC and medical literature was reviewed todetermine the relationship between acid rain andhuman illness. Rain and a pH below 5.6 is referred to as acid rain. Although ’acid rain ’ or more properly acid deposition is a relatively new environmental issue, Robert Angus Smith described the condition in the highly industrialized city of Manchester, England, in 1872. While not precisely characterized, the mechanism of its formation appears to proceed from the photolytic transformation of sulfur and nitrogen oxides into sulfates and nitrates which in turn, in the presence of moisture, yieldsulfuric and nitric acids. The oxides of sulfur and nitrogen are by-products of fossil fueled power plant, automobile exhausts, smelting and chemical processing. These oxides and acids have been associated with diminished fish populations, and malformations in