International Regulation of Urban Smog Since the 1940s - Air Pollution and Global Warming: History, Science, and Solutions - page 191

EU reduces the average life expectancy by about 8.6
months (WHO, 2008).

Table 8.6. European union ambient air quality
standards, 2011

Pollutant Standard

8.2.2. United Kingdom
In January 1956, soon after the Air Pollution Control
Act was enacted in the United States, the Clean Air
Act became law in the UK. The UK act was a response
to the devastating smog event in London that killed
4,000 people in 1952. It controlled both household and
industrial emissions of pollution for the first time in
the UK, but it dealt only with smoke, particularly black
and dark smoke. It did not deal with sulfur dioxide,
although presumably reductions in smoke would also
reduce sulfur dioxide. The act resulted in 90 percent
of London being controlled by smoke regulations. It
mandated smokeless zones in London and the relocation
of many power plants to rural areas.
The next major piece of air pollution legislation in the
United Kingdom was the Clean Air Act of 1968 ,which
required that industries burning fossil fuels (solid, liq-
uid, or gas) construct tall chimneys to prevent their
emissions from depositing to the ground locally.
The UK joined the EU in 1972. Since then, EU direc-
tives on the controls of pollution have been followed in
the UK. Some of these directives were formalized in the
UK's Environmental Protection Act of 1990 ,which
permitted local governments to control emissions from
small industrial processes and establish a statutory sys-
tem for local air quality management. The national gov-
ernment still controlled emissions from large sources
under the 1956 and 1968 UK Clean Air Acts.
In 1992, UK vehicle emission standards were
strengthened in accordance with an EU directive. In
1993, catalytic converters were required in all new
gasoline-powered vehicles, again in accordance with an
EU directive. In 1995, the UK passed the Environment
Act ,which outlined the need for scientific studies of
the effects of air pollution and the need for new health-
based air quality standards by 2005. The act required
the publication of a plan to combat air pollution. In
1997, a plan called the United Kingdom National Air
Quality Strategy was published. Under this strategy,
ambient limits for ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur diox-
ide, carbon monoxide, benzene, 1-,3-butadiene, lead,
and particulate matter were set in accordance with EU
standards.
Prior to the 1980s, most energy in the UK was
obtained from coal, a fuel that caused much of the
smoke problems experienced in London and other
big cities. Between 1980 and 1998, coal consumption

Ozone [O 3 (g)]
8-Hour average 60 ppbv (120 gm − 3 )

Carbon Monoxide [CO(g)]
8-Hour average 9 ppmv (10 mg m − 3 )

Nitrogen Dioxide [NO 2 (g)]
Annual average

21 ppbv (40 gm − 3 )

1-Hour average 105 ppbv (200 gm − 3 )

Sulfur Dioxide [SO 2 (g)]
24 Hours

0.05 ppmv (125 gm − 3 )

1Hour 0.13 ppmv (350 gm − 3 )

PM 10
Annual average

40 gm − 3

24-Hour average 50 gm − 3

PM 2.5
Annual average 25 gm − 3

Lead [Pb(s)]
Annual average 0.5 gm − 3

Source: European Commission (2011).

higher in the United States. As of 2011, the EU did not
have a standard limiting CO 2 (g) emissions from vehi-
cles, although proposals for such a standard had been
floated.
Table 8.6 summarizes ambient air quality stan-
dards in the EU .European Union ozone standards in
2011 were more stringent than in the United States
(60 ppbv vs. 75 ppbv), primarily because photochemi-
cal ozone production in Europe is, on average, slower
than in the United States due to the fact that most of
Europe is at higher latitudes, and UV radiation penetra-
tion to the surface is weaker than in the United States.
Because ozone forms less readily in Europe, its buildup
is not so significant of a problem as in many U.S. cities,
so a standard for it can be more stringent in the EU with-
out invoking opposition. In the United States, industry
groups have continuously opposed reducing ozone stan-
dards. Carbon monoxide and the 1-hour nitrogen diox-
ide standards are similar in the EU and the United States.
The 1-hour sulfur dioxide standard and the annual PM 2.5
standard are more stringent in the United States. The
weaker particulate matter standard in the EU occurs
because of the greater difficulty in meeting a stringent
PM 2.5 standard in the EU due to the deep penetration
of diesel passenger vehicles, which are high particle
emitters. The high PM 2.5 concentration throughout the