Air pollutants cause subtle changes in natural resistance that can prediscope plants to insect attack. The majority of reports in the area of plant-pollutant-insect interactions have been correlative in nature. In the last ten years, there has emerged a growing body of literature, the vast majority with herbaceous crops, reporting on cause-effect relationships among insects and their hosts.

Air pollutants such as ozone may affect tree host-pathogen interactions by altering plant tissue susceptibility, plant resistance, pathogen virulence and inoculum density. Ozone has been shown to weaken trees in natural stands and increase their susceptibility to invasion by plant pathogens, such as Heterobasidion annosum. Ozone has also been shown to enhance disease development by fungi that are normally saprophytic in nature.

The potential effects of long-term exposures to widespread low but raised concentrations above natural levels in Central Europe are still being discussed. This uncertainty results from an inadequate mechanistic understanding of the influence of air pollutants and other environmental factors of trees.

Since the beginning of the 80's, a wide-spread damage to Norway spruce has occurred, mainly characterized by the light-induced decay of chlorophyll in magnesium-deficient needles. Damage also occurs in deciduous trees, especially in beech. To clarify the causes of the damage in Northrine-Wesphalian forests, extensive investigations have been carried out, which combined experimental techniques and epidemiologically orientated surveys.

Most concern about the effects air pollution has been directed towards central and northern Europe, although considerable damage has been attributed to air pollution in the Mediterranean countries. The damage is mostly in the vicinity of point sources and can usually be related to specific pollutants such as sulphur dioxide and hydrogen fluoride.

The results of numerous investigations in Europe on potential relationships between forest decline caused by immissions and the wood quality of diseased trees consistently showed the technical properties of wood form diseased trees to be unaffected. Wood from diseased trees can be used without reservation.