Technical Bulletin No. 0116: Local Public Relations in Pollution Abatement

The attached report is the text of a paper given at the 1959 Annual Meeting of Members of the National Council by Mr. Ed Stout, Public Relations Officer of the Bowaters Southern Paper Corporation. It is Mr. Stout's thesis that the technical progress made by industry in the solution of its waste treatment problems and in the conservation of natural resources is too often obscured by poor public relations. Good public relations with respect to the program and problems of pollution abatement will be the outgrowth of a positive, progressive, and continuing program. Mr. Stout outlines the elements of such a program beginning with management through employees and the local means of communication in educating the public in the widely misunderstood fields of stream and atmospheric pollution. Considerable emphasis is placed on how to obtain satisfactory press relations which can be all important especially in the smaller community. It is believed that this material will prove valuable to technical personnel as well as to management.