By Bob Harris
For years the Rosedale Civic Association, one of many in New York City, has fought against noise and air pollution caused by cars, trucks and airplanes. In the September 1999 newsletter it printed a full page letter written to state Sen. Majority Leader Joseph Bruno on these issues.
These problems concern us in Fresh Meadows because airplanes from La Guardia Airport cause the same problems that JFK airplanes cause. Other civics in northern Queens are also concerned about air plane noise and pollution.
As air planes take off they burn extra fuel. Prior to landing or if there is an emergency, they may dump several thousand gallons of fuel. When we add to this pollution from auto and truck engines and the emissions from factories and power plants, then you can see why asthma is such a big problem in our metropolitan area.
I come back to the question which has been raised in the past by this column as to the price we should pay for economic growth and certain jobs.
Many children and adults suffer from asthma because of pollutants put into the air by industry. There are ways to cut down on smog, but we have to pay a few pennies more for products and services. We are now paying to support city hospitals which treat asthma sufferers, so we might as well pay to cut the pollutants at the sources.
The civic associations and the umbrella group, the Queens Civic Congress, are some of the voices which recently convinced Gov. George Pataki to order a 50 percent cut in pollution from New York state
