New NLM Exhibit Reflects on History of Environmental Pollution Activism

Cover of Clean Air booklet shows drawing of a city skyline with dark, ominous smog approaching from the left.

This 1966 pamphlet encouraged everyday citizens to make a healthier environment for their community.

Photo: NLM

NLM launched its latest online exhibit, “Fifty Years Ago: The Darkening Day,” celebrating the golden anniversary of an NLM exhibition on the health aspects of environmental pollution.

The original exhibit was reviewed on page 11 of the Sept. 29, 1970 issue of the NIH Record.

The new exhibit looks back on research, programs and policies, public messaging and action taken by the then-U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare and federal scientists from the Public Health Service, as awareness of pollution’s detrimental impacts on health grew in the years preceding 1970.

That same year, millions of Americans took to the streets in observance of the first Earth Day, on Apr. 22.