Page 32 - Fundamentals of Air Pollution

III. The Twentieth Century 1.1

Le Visinet, France; the Rijksinstituut Voor de Volksgezondheid, Bilthoven
and the Instituut voor Gezondheidstechniek-TNO, Delft, The Netherlands;
the Statens Naturvardsverk, Solna, Sweden; the Institut fur Wasser-Boden-
und Luft-hygiene, Berlin and the Landensanstalt fur Immissions und
Bodennutzungsshutz, Essen, Germany. The important air pollution re-
search centers in Japan are too numerous to mention.
In the United States, the smog problem continued to worsen in Los
Angeles and appeared in large cities throughout the nation (Fig. 1-7). In
1955 the first federal air pollution legislation was enacted, providing federal
support for air pollution research, training, and technical assistance. Re-
sponsibility for the administration of the federal program was given to the
Public Health Service (PHS) of the United States Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare, and remained there until 1970, when it was trans-
ferred to the new United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The initial federal legislation was amended and extended several times
between 1955 and 1980, greatly increasing federal authority, particularly
in the area of control (15). The automobile continued to proliferate (Table
1-1).
As in Europe, air pollution research activity expanded tremendously in
the United States during these three decades. The headquarters of federal
research activity was at the Robert A. Taft Sanitary Engineering Center of
the PHS in Cincinnati, Ohio, during the early years of the period and
at the National Environmental Research Center in Triangle Park, North
Carolina, at the end of the period.
An International Air Pollution Congress was held in New York City in
1955 (16). Three National Air Pollution Conferences were held in Washing-
ton, D.C., in 1958 (17), 1962 (18), and 1966 (19). In 1959, an International
Clean Air Conference was held in London (20).

TABLE 1-1
Annual Motor Vehicle Sales in the
United States"
Year Total Year Total
1900 4,192 1945 725,215
1905 25,000 1950 8,003,056
1910 187,000 1955 9,169,292
1915 969,930 1960 7,869,221
1920 2,227,347 1965 11,057,366
1925 4,265,830 1970 8,239,257
1930 3,362,820 1975 8,985,012
1935 3,971,241 1980 8,067,309
1940 4,472,286 1985 11,045,784
1990 9,295,732
Data include foreign and domestic sales for
trucks, buses, and automobiles.