Increasing mechanisation and population densities in our society, coupled with higher standards of living and education, have in recent years resulted in a growing concern about pollution and its effects on the environment. The era of sporadic individual complaints to government is being rapidly superseded by one where strategic concerted action by irate citizens’ interest groups is becoming commonplace. As a result, governments are becoming increasingly involved with the problem of environmental pollution; in Canada, for example, the Environmental Protection Service of the Department of Fisheries and the Environment for fiscal year 1976–77 had a staff of approximately 800 and a total budget of $22 million.