A research project in southern California originally aimed at seeking resistance to sugar cane mosaic virus in sweet corn has also shown that genetic resistance to air pollution also exists in certain varieties. This was not entirely unexpected, since air pollution resistance is known to exist within other plant species. Tobacco varieties, for example, vary widely in susceptibility to ozone; and petunia varieties vary widely in susceptibility to PAN (a photo-chemical pollutant). Smog-resistant varieties of sweet corn should be of particular interest to growers for the summer and fall harvest periods in Los Angeles, Orange, and western Riverside counties.