Protecting the environment from harmful industrial wastes in the next century has become one of the most important and complex problems of our time. Pollution of the atmosphere, the oceans, and the ground poses a threat to plant and animal life worldwide. A significant portion of the harmful substances discharged into the atmosphere is generated by metallurgical facilities. Metallurgical plants account for 20-25 % of all harmful atmospheric emissions, this figure climbing to more than 50 % near metallurgical combines and large factories. These emissions can be broken down as follows within the countries comprising the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States): 25 % particulate matter; 30-40% carbon monoxide; 6% sulfur oxides; 8% nitrogen oxides. A large (15-20%) contributor to harmful emissions in the metallurgical industry is open-hearth furnace operation. The concentration of dust in the flue gases of open-hearth shops varies broadly in relation to different factors and can reach 50 g/m 3. Most of the dust consists of iron oxides, the concentration of which can reach 92 %. Also present in the dust are oxides of calcium, magnesium, aluminum, manganese, lead, zinc, phosphorous, and silicon. The concentrations of oxides of sulfur and nitrogen in OH flue gases fluctuate broadly, depending on different factors. The concentration of nitrogen oxides can reach 1 g/m 3, while the concentration of sulfur oxides can go as high as 0.08 g/m 3. The OH flue gases also contain carbon monoxide, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and benzo/cdpyrene. Since up to 65 % of domestic steel is made in OH and two-bath furnaces and since only 40 % of the OH furnaces are equipped with gas-cleaning systems, it is evident that protecting the atmosphere from the emissions generated by OH shops is a serious problem. This makes the recent book by S. I. Arkhireeva and A. F. Onushkevich, entitled Protecting the Atmosphere from Open-Hearth Emissions [Metallurgiya, Moscow (1992)] a very timely publication. The book consists of a brief introduction and four chapters. The first chapter details the design and operating characteristics of OH and two-bath steelmaking furnaces, along with the sources of harmful atmospheric emission associated with their operation. The second chapter presents quantitative and qualitative characteristics of periodic and random emissions of particulate matter, sulfur anhydride, nitrogen oxides, and other harmful substances during different regimes of operation of OH and two-bath furnaces. The third chapter is devoted to an explanation of the methods and equipment used to remove dust, nitrogen oxides, and benzo/~/pyrene from OH and two-bath-furnace waste gases. This chapter also gives the performance indices of this equipment and indices reflecting the efficacy of various systems designed to clean OH flue gases. The fourth and final chapter covers measures that can be taken to prevent pollution of the atmosphere by OH furnace operation: the principal methods currently being used to reduce harmful emissions, along with certain measures related to sanitation. Also discussed in the chapter are the conditions under which emissions are dispersed in the atmosphere and measures that can prove helpful under unfavorable weather conditions. At the conclusion of this chapter, the authors present information on the organization and activities of pollution-control services at plants in the ferrous metallurgy sector. The book contains 25 illustration, 13 tables, and 16 formulas for performing the necessary mathematical calculations.