To Clear the Air begins as an elderly man with a respiratory condition dies while walking outside during a smog warning. Quincy (Jack Klugman) conducts the autopsy and finds high traces of sulfur in the lungs of the man which leads him to list the cause of death as air pollution. This frustrates Dr. Asten (John S. Ragin) who does not concur with the determination, but when a young asthmatic boy residing at the same convalescent care center as the elderly man also dies after going outside, this further validates Quincy's findings and the focus becomes on a nearby refinery plant that may be emitting deadly amounts of pollutants and covering it up with government inspectors.
I found this to be a fairly reasonable story which still has relevance today as we just saw something similar where a huge auto manufacturer was caught rigging the systems of their popular vehicles to appear to be emitting less pollutants than they were actually when tested by government inspectors. From this perspective it is a pretty decent and competent story, but the problem was I just didn't find it all that exciting and felt that it came off as rather dull. The conclusion was also pretty weak in that there is a courtroom confession that wraps everything up very conveniently which was very predictable and anti-climactic.
Overall this is a rather mediocre Season 7 episode which deals with a public health issue and a cover-up rather than a murder mystery, and while the issue of pollution as well as big business cover up continues to be relevant and important now, it just wasn't enough to make this a very good Quincy episode.
I found this to be a fairly reasonable story which still has relevance today as we just saw something similar where a huge auto manufacturer was caught rigging the systems of their popular vehicles to appear to be emitting less pollutants than they were actually when tested by government inspectors. From this perspective it is a pretty decent and competent story, but the problem was I just didn't find it all that exciting and felt that it came off as rather dull. The conclusion was also pretty weak in that there is a courtroom confession that wraps everything up very conveniently which was very predictable and anti-climactic.
Overall this is a rather mediocre Season 7 episode which deals with a public health issue and a cover-up rather than a murder mystery, and while the issue of pollution as well as big business cover up continues to be relevant and important now, it just wasn't enough to make this a very good Quincy episode.
