Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 8
International Regulation of Urban Smog
Since the 1940s
Until the 1940s, efforts to control air pollution in the
United States were limited to a few municipal ordi-
nances and state laws regulating smoke (Chapter 4). In
the UK, regulations were limited to the British Alkali
Act of 1863 and some relatively weak public health bills
designed to abate smoke. Regulations in other countries
were similarly weak or nonexistent. The main reason
for the lack of regulation in polluted cities was that the
coal, oil, chemical, and auto industries - the ultimate
sources of much of the pollution - had political power
and used it to resist efforts of government intervention
(e.g., Section 4.1). Because the long-term health effects
of pollutants on outdoor concentrations were not well
known at the time, it was also difficult for public health
agencies to recommend the banning of a pollutant, par-
ticularly in the face of political pressure from industry
and arguments that such a ban would hurt economic
growth (e.g., Midgley's defense of tetraethyl lead in
Section 3.6.9). From the late 1940s to the mid-1950s,
damage due to photochemical smog in many U.S. cities
wassosignificant that the federal government decided
to take steps to address the problem. Similarly, deadly
London-type smog events in the UK spurred govern-
ment legislation in the 1950s. Today, nearly all coun-
tries have instituted air pollution regulations of some
kind or another. Nevertheless, regulations in most coun-
tries are still weak or unenforced, resulting in the per-
sistence of devastating air pollution worldwide. This
chapter discusses regulation of outdoor pollution and
air quality trends in several countries since the 1950s.
International regulations involving transboundary air
pollution are discussed in Section 10.7.
8.1. Regulation in the United States
In the 1940s, photochemical smog in Los Angeles
became a cause for concern and led to the formation
of the Los Angeles Air Pollution Control District in
1947. In 1951, the state of Oregon established an agency
to oversee and regulate air pollution. Other states fol-
lowed, so that by 1960, seventeen statewide air pollution
agencies existed. In 1948, a heavy air pollution episode
in Donora, Pennsylvania, killed 20 people, and in 1948,
1952, and 1956, air pollution episodes in London killed
nearly 5,000. Pollution in Los Angeles reached its peak
in severity in the mid-1950s, when ozone levels as high
as 0.68 ppmv were recorded. In 1952, Arie Haagen-Smit
isolated the mechanism of ozone formation in photo-
chemical smog. The combination of public outcry in
the United States about the effects of air pollution and a
better understanding of its causes contributed to the first
federal legislation concerning air pollution in 1955.
8.1.1. Air Pollution Control Act of 1955
Because of the accelerating health and quality-of-
life problems associated with air pollution, President
Dwight D. Eisenhower asked the U.S. Congress to con-
sider legislation addressing the issue in 1955. Until
this time, state and local governments had received
no federal guidance in combating air pollution. On
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