The field burning ban adopted by the House on Monday ends a struggle that has been going on since the 1970s. One wonders if it is really over or if there's another target on the list.

Eugene tried for more than 30 years to get this agricultural practice abolished, and it finally got its wish.

Since the late 1990s, when the final stage of the field-burning phase-down adopted in 1991 was reached, ground smoke from field burning has been all but eliminated in major population centers.

Starting next year, when the nearly complete ban takes effect, we may see that the main arguments against the practice were bogus.

State Rep. Phil Barnhart of Eugene, whose district includes southern Linn County, spoke Monday of haze in the southern valley and the shock of additional pollution when field fires are lit in the morning. He also mentioned a winery in the Coast Range that was bothered by field smoke. Since burning is usually authorized only when a weather system moves through the valley from the southwest, and since the fires usually are lit in the afternoon, the connection of both those anecdotes to reality is tenuous at best.

Chances are the southern valley will still see air pollution in the summer when the air is still. Chances are wineries in the Coast Range may still smell the occasional whiff of smoke, probably from a wildfire farther south or to the west.

One of the consequences of no field burning is more tilling of fields, and that is not restricted to days when the wind blows from any particular direction. The likely result in years to come: More and more dust in the air, especially on dry days in late summer when the breeze typically blows from the north. If people have asthma,, sad to say, they will continue to have bad days.

It will be interesting to see how the backers of the field burning ban respond when Eugene breathes more dust. This time they said they were not against farming, only against the bad health effects from smoke, rare as that result may have been.

If air pollution does not improve, if smoke from various sources still wafts through the Willamette Valley skies, if people still have asthma attacks, and if the haze cited by Representative Barnhart persists, some residents and legislators may want to go after other farming practices next. (hh)