Abstract
The Tokyo metropolitan area first experienced the abnormal phenomenon of harm to humans and plants caused by photochemical air pollution, having oxidants as the main component, in July 1969. Since that time, studies of various photochemical air pollution phenomena such as mechanisms of pollutant formation reactions; pollutant movements and dispersal; relationship of pollution to meteorological phenomena; and effects on humans, animals, and plants, have been undertaken in Japan.
One of the characteristics of photochemical air pollution is that the pollution effects are extremely wide ranging, with a major impact on plants. Hence, severe harmful effects of photochemical air pollution on natural vegetation and agricultural crops in the Tokyo metropolitan area can be inferred. For a full account of the actual effects on the metropolitan area ecosystem, including all vegetation, we must await future studies ; however, the present report collates the research results obtained so far on plant damage, together with a description of photochemical air pollution characteristics in the Tokyo metropolitan area, and includes a bibliography on plant damage caused by oxidants.
