Page 31 - Fundamentals of Air Pollution

10 1. The History of Air Pollution

Fig. 1-5. Los Angeles smog. Source: Los Angeles County, California.

During this period, no significant national air pollution legislation or
regulations were adopted anywhere in the world. However, the first state
air pollution law in the United States was adopted by California in 1947.

C. 1950-1980
In Great Britain, a major air pollution disaster hit London in 1952 (13),
resulting in the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1956 and an expansion of
the authority of the Alkali Inspectorate. The principal changes that resulted
were in the means of heating homes. Previously, most heating was done
by burning soft coal on grates in separate fireplaces in each room. A success-
ful effort was made to substitute smokeless fuels for the soft coal used in
this manner, and central or electrical heating for fireplace heating. The
outcome was a decrease in "smoke" concentration, as measured by the
blackness of paper filters through which British air was passed from
3 3
175 mg/m in 1958 to 75 mg/m in 1968 (14).
During these two decades, almost every country in Europe, as well as
Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, experienced serious air pollution in
its larger cities. As a result, these countries were the first to enact national air
pollution control legislation. By 1980, major national air pollution research
centers had been set up at the Warren Springs Laboratory, Stevenage,
England; the Institut National de la Sante et de las Recherche Medicale at