Jerome Stein's article in a recent issue of this Review is subject to misinterpretation which could lead to seriously misleading results. He makes several arguments against the Council's conclusion that Many, though not all, pollution problems are local in character, and therefore determination of the appropriate level of environmental quality in these cases is likely to be more accurate if it is done locally rather than by the Federal Government . (quoted by Stein, p. 532). One of his arguments is that local pricing (effluent charges) would result in inefficiency because the marginal product of pollution would then differ from region to region. Possible confusion results from the fact that two separate measures of pollution are not consistently distinguished. The first is a physical measure like pounds of biochemical oxygen demand or tons of sulfur oxide discharge. The other is the dollar value of damage. In Stein's Figure 1, the horizontal axis represents pollution damage and what is demonstrated is that a dollar's worth of damage must be charged for at the rate of a dollar if efficiency is to prevail. This is emphatically not the same as saying that every pound of discharge should be charged for at the same rate, no matter where in the nation it occurs. But the latter is a conclusion that could easily be inferred from Stein's discussion. instance, Stein says, For example, if the firms were ordered to reduce the rate of pollution by Ax, . (p. 533) where the correct reference is to pollution damage. A similar sliding over from pollution emission to pollution damage occurs again in the first full paragraph of page 535. The translation of pounds of discharge into dollars of damage depends, among other things, on meteorological and hydrological conditions and on the presence and preferences of receptors. Charging a dollar for a dollar's worth of damage requires quite different rates of charge per pound of discharge depending upon the locality. A uniform national charge might be defended on other grounds (see Kneese) but not as a requirement for efficiency strictly speaking. Charges which reflect local conditions could in principle be set locally or nationally. If the Council's argument is right, and I am not trying to assess it here, that the optimum level of environmental quality is more likely to be accurately determined locally, then, problems of implementation aside, more efficient charges could be set locally.

The states of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona form a region defined more by a wide range of common problems than by any shared institutional apparatus for solving those problems. The Southwest, as we term this region, is an arid area with its major watershed having an average annual precipitation of only sixteen inches. It is an area of high aesthetic quality with spectacular mountains, fertile valleys, and sweeping plains. Many of these vistas have been preserved in the national parks, monuments, forests, wilderness, and other federal and state reservations that have been established in the region.' It is a region whose history was formed largely by the force of three distinct cultures-Indian, Spanish, and Anglo-whose modern society retains this tricultural division. Although some blending of the separate cultures has occurred, there still exist numerous towns, villages, and settlements which are exclusively within one cultural tradition. It is a region of low population densities with most of the population

It is becomino recocnized in the United States that nutrition in the broadest sense, that is, all substances that are ingested, is a very important factor in health, perhaps the most important over which mia,n has atny control. To some extent this insight results from observation of relations between geochemistrv and health.' For example, the relationship between iodine deficiency and enildemiic goiter has been recognized for many years. Similarly the relationislhips between iron deficiency and anemiiia and betweeni flouride deficiency and clental caries are well known. Others include zinlc deficiency and dwarfism, and lithium deficiency and mental disorders. As such relationships become better understood, large opportunities to improve health through preventive measures become available. It is most unfortunate that medical research has devoted itself almost entirely to cures rather than understanding the etiology of disease. Even nmore urgent perhaps than understanding how natural geochemlistry influences health and disease is finding out how human interventions in the chemistry of the environment ar-e related to disease. T here are many such effects possible and a number have occurr-ed on a relatively large scale. Dramatic instances of heavy mletal poisoning have happened, mlost notably in Japan. A number of combustion products discharged to the atmosphere from stationary anid mlobile sources are implicated in luing disease. But the suspected relationshlips between environmental contamination and cancer are currently receiving the most attention because in many ways that is our most important disease. Cancer incidence has been rising at an average rate of approximately 1 percent a year for somne time. Heart disease is still the largest killer, accounting for about 40 percent of total deaths in 1975 according to the National Center for Health Statistics. But the death rate from heart disease went down while cancer deaths, about 20 percent of the total, went up more than 2 percent in 1975. Contrary to the impression which might be gained from some of the more dramatic stories in the press, the long term rise has been dominated by only one form of this disease, lung cancer. Since 1930 lung canicer has been rising steadily for both men and women but much more rapidly for the former. The recent upturn in lung cancer rates for women reflects the delayed (relative to men) popularity of cigarette snmoking amiiong women. Thus, the increase in female smoking in the 1930's and 1940's may shortly cause a dramatic increase in female lung canicer rates. Stomach cancer has been trending pretty steadily clownward, although quite recently cancers of the digestive tract have shown an increase and the others have been constant. The increase in lung cancer appears, as mentioned, to be strongly related to smoking. Lest one feel complacent about the situation, however (all we have to do is stop smoking and anyway smokinig is voluntary, one might say), one should recall three sets of facts. First, the cancer rate is high in the United States, accounting for a large portion of mortality, and death from cancer is often especially painful. Second, *Prl)fcssor of Econiomics and Associate Professor of Econoimiics. respectively The Univei-sity of New Mexico. 'For a review ot the evidence, see Geochemnisatrs atid th, Enovironmenot, I, National Academy of Sciences 1974.