Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
from car exhaust pipes contributes largely to air quality. LAURE has become an
essential tool for rationalizing these profound changes. This piece of legislation has
defined what is known as measurement networks and has set alert thresholds, which
makes it possible to initiate a protocol of media coverage should the pollution levels
exceed these alert thresholds.
6.2.1.
Industrial pollution: the era of secrecy
The first measurements of air quality were taken for hygienic purposes. Deadly
levels of acid particle pollution in London in 1952 and all along the Meuse Valley in
1930 caught the attention of health authorities. The health authorities found that
prosperous, yet polluting, industrial areas were damaging the air and thus the health
of the people living in these areas. It was at this moment that the existence of
invisible physical and chemical pollutants were discovered and, as a result, this led
to the creation of new pollution management strategies such as the Clean Air Act
which was introduced in England
4
.
Since the 1960s monitoring is the institutional answer for pollution prevention.
This type of monitoring has made industries aware of the harm that their industrial
waste can cause. The data gathered in relation to pollution levels makes it possible
to carry out studies and to work out guideline levels of pollutants that should be
present in the air, which can be used as a basis for the European Environmental
Policy [FES 97]. However, the influence that these measurements have on pollution
management, as well as the importance of metrology has meant that air and water
management is slowly being transferred from hospital doctors to engineers. This
change in monitoring features, which move from the local hygiene field to the world
of engineers [VLA 99], can also be represented by the creation of a technical
network managed by the French state. This evolution is still continuing today with
the regionalization of the technical networks and, according to P. Richert [RIC 07],
is seen as the result of a need for more specialized and more sophisticated networks,
impossible to achieve in small structures. With the creation of the Ministry for the
Environment in 1971, and due to the fact that the École des Mines in Paris (a
prestigious French engineering school in Paris) controlled how air quality was
monitored, monitoring air quality became an issue that was no longer dealt with by
health experts, but became part of engineering sciences. As a result of the progress
made in metrology, the normal values of pollutants in the air can be broken down
into more precise time periods, meaning that it has become easier to understand and
predict periods of peak pollution and also to avoid them. The idea of creating an
alert is associated with measurements that are recorded continuously, and which are
used to detect the harmful risks associated with pollutants.
4 The pollution problem in London is an extremely old problem that dates back to before the
17
th
century. Any problems that existed before this time are also linked to problems
associated with pollution after the 17
th
century. Legislations were passed during the 19
th
century, in 1853, and in 1863 with the Alkali Act. The Clean Air Act was introduced in 1953.
