A number of reports tell of the effectiveness of vitamins A and E as aids in counteracting the effects of air pollution. For example, a symposium on pollution and lung biochemistry in June 1970 was sponsored by Battelle-Northwest Research Institute and attended by some 200 scientists. Reporting on the symposium, Chemical and Engineering News of June 29, 1970, said: “Vitamins appear to play a much more vital role in safeguarding lungs from the ravages of air pollutants than has been generally realized.” It was pointed out that vitamins A and E “help maintain lung health​—vitamin E may protect vitamin A from destruction by air pollutants, while A directs formation of healthy cells in the lining of the lung.”

Scientific researchers have long known that vitamin A is important for healthy mucous membranes, cell walls and cilia. In fact, one report in the New York Times of October 25, 1966, told about scientist Dr. Umberto Saffiotti, who found that vitamin A inhibited the development of lung cancer in tests on laboratory animals. In the tests, he subjected more than one hundred hamsters to benzopyrene, a widespread product of combustion found in smoke and auto exhaust. Of 53 animals receiving just air pollutant, 16 got lung cancer. Of 60 animals protected by vitamin A, only five developed tumors, and four of these were nonmalignant.

Some researchers believe that vitamin E may prevent respiratory diseases caused by air pollution. Dr. D. B. Menzel, nutrition and food technology manager, told a scientific conference in Miami: “Laboratory tests on rats show that those fortified with vitamin E live twice as long as the unfortified rats in an atmosphere which simulates smog concentrations like those found over Los Angeles or Tokyo on a bad day.”

Menzel went on to say: “This research suggests a definite protective effect of fat antioxidants, such as vitamin E, against biological damage by photochemical air pollutants such as ozone and nitrous dioxide.”

Researchers thus believe that vitamin E helps body tissues in coping with a lack of oxygen. It evidently produces better circulation of oxygen through the blood vessels.

Many nutritionists and researchers also believe that vitamin C is of value in combating the effects of air pollution. An experiment performed at the University of California revealed that plant cells fortified with vitamin C were helped to overcome the damage from smog. Vitamin C is believed to neutralize the effects of poisons.

Then again, “some smog poisons may be counteracted by vitamin B,” reports the volume Our Poisoned Earth and Sky. “Desiccated liver [rich in vitamin B] is reported to have, in one week, completely restored the vitality of a man who had been severely debilitated for a year following poisoning by fumes from a plastics manufacturing process.”

Of course, not all authorities agree that these vitamins are helpful in combating air pollution, but many believe that the evidence increasingly supports the view that they are of benefit.

Vitamin C is also often mentioned as valuable for liver health. For example, an experiment carried out at Cairo University involved injecting mice with carbon tetrachloride. The researchers found that none of the mice that received large doses of vitamin C died. However, five of the mice receiving carbon tetrachloride without vitamin C died after seventy-two hours. According to these researchers, one way that vitamin C protected the mice was by preventing the death of liver cells.

Nutritionist Adelle Davis mentions protein and vitamin C as being valuable in protecting the liver. She says: “Liver damage caused by various industrial poisons​—benzene, nitrobenzene, leaded gasoline, and numerous hydrocarbons—​has been corrected by diets high in protein and vitamin C.”

Dr. Klaus Schwarz of the National Institute of Health believes that vitamin E is important for good liver health. Tests showed that rats deprived of vitamin E suffered liver degeneration.