In May 1984 Senator Frank Ferguson, a senior member of the Alaska State Legislature, asked the University of Alaska-Fairbanks to sponsor two international symposia on the phenomenon known as Arctic haze. An appropriation was provided, and Prof Glenn Shaw began immediately to implement this request, convening a session in October 1984 in cooperation with the northwest meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr David Drewry attended this meeting and graciously offered the services and facilities of the Scott Polar Research Institute of the University of Cambridge as the site for the 1985 international symposium on Arctic Air Pollution. The Arctic is one of those regions of the world that has long fascinated both men and women. It has invited the explorer, it has stimulated the soul of the poet, it has intrigued the scientist, it has challenged the industrialist, and it has engendered awe in those populations unfamiliar with its character and essence. At the same time, for centuries the Arctic has served as home to a hardy population of indigeneous people who have learned through the years that it offers them a very special quality of life. These people, although separated artificially by our geopolitical boundaries, have evolved a culture and value system that operates in harmony with the land they inhabit. They have come to understand the fragility of its nature and that, because of its intense extremes, small infusions of non-native substances may have larger-than-normal impacts of wide reach.