scholarly journals Two Cheers for Air Pollution Control: Triumphs and Limits of the Mid-Century Fight for Air Quality

2019 ◽  
Vol 134 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merlin Chowkwanyun
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Pollution Control ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Air Pollution Control ◽  
Local Experience ◽  
The Us ◽  
Clean Air

This article analyzes the early years of 20th-century air pollution control in Los Angeles. In both scholarship and public memory, mid-century efforts at the regional level were overshadowed by major federal developments, namely the Clean Air Act and creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. Yet the mid-century local experience was highly consequential and presaged many subsequent challenges that persist today. The article begins with an exploration of the existential, on-the-ground misery of smog in Los Angeles during the 1940s and 1950s. The article examines the role that scientific evidence on smog did and did not play in regulation, the reasons smog control galvanized support across various constituencies in the region, and, finally, some of mid-century air pollution’s limits.

scholarly journals Policy Evolution under the Clean Air Act

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 27-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Schmalensee ◽  
Robert N. Stavins
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Pollution Control ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Clean Air Act ◽  
The United States ◽  
Air Pollution Control ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Us ◽  
Clean Air ◽  
Air Pollution Regulation

The US Clean Air Act, passed in 1970 with strong bipartisan support, was the first environmental law to give the federal government a serious regulatory role, established the architecture of the US air pollution control system, and became a model for subsequent environmental laws in the United States and globally. We outline the act’s key provisions, as well as the main changes Congress has made to it over time. We assess the evolution of air pollution control policy under the Clean Air Act, with particular attention to the types of policy instruments used. We provide a generic assessment of the major types of policy instruments, and we trace and assess the historical evolution of the Environmental Protection Agency’s policy instrument use, with particular focus on the increased use of market-based policy instruments, beginning in the 1970s and culminating in the 1990s. Over the past 50 years, air pollution regulation has gradually become more complex, and over the past 20 years, policy debates have become increasingly partisan and polarized, to the point that it has become impossible to amend the act or pass other legislation to address the new threat of climate change.

ResearchandTest Facilitiesof the Los Angeles County Air Pollution Control District

1963 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 112-115
Author(s):  
S. Smith Griswold ◽  
Arthur A. Atkisson ◽  
Robert E. Neligan ◽  
Frank Bonamassa ◽  
Wallace Linville
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Pollution Control ◽  
Los Angeles County ◽  
Air Pollution Control

THE ROLE OF GAS IN ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL

1973 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
Hanns F. Hartmann
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Pollution Control ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Environmental Control ◽  
Air Pollution Control ◽  
Oxides Of Nitrogen

The gases comprising the atmosphere are in dynamic balance both with the oceans and the dry land of the continents. The mechanisms which operate to keep the atmospheric content of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon and sulphur constant are now well defined. The capacity of the system to absorb excess gaseous impurities is adequate on a global basis with the exception of carbon dioxide.Air pollution is thus a local problem resulting from the overloading of a particular air space with contaminants. The greater part of air pollution is due to the combustion of fossil fuels. Ease of control and virtual freedom from sulphur give natural gas an advantage over liquid and solid fuels as far as air pollution control is concerned. Oxides of nitrogen are produced when natural gas is burned but in smaller quantities than in the combustion of other fuels. In high capacity industrial gas burners where oxides of nitrogen may be generated in large quantities control is easier and can achieve a lower level of oxides of nitrogen than is the case with other fuels.The large scale use of natural gas to solve the air pollution problems of Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and many other cities is proof of the usefulness of gas in this respect. Specialised applications include use in incinerators and industrial after burners. Advances in removal of impurities from fuels and of air pollutants from products of combustion combined with rising gas prices will in time displace gas from its preeminent position in air pollution control. It is, however, likely to retain its advantage in small installations and in dense urban areas. In public and private transport its use will probably remain limited.While technological developments in the distant future may eventually displace fossil fuels, gas will have a large share of the fuel market until that day comes and will contribute effectively to the control of air pollution.

Population aging might mask the health benefit from China’s 2013 Clean Air Action

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yifan Liu ◽  
Xiaojing He ◽  
Zixiao Zhao ◽  
Ge Zhu ◽  
Clive Sabel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Age Structure ◽  
Pollution Control ◽  
Population Distribution ◽  
Population Aging ◽  
Health Benefit ◽  
Attributable Mortality ◽  
Air Pollution Control ◽  
Health Burden ◽  
Clean Air

<p>Ambient PM<sub>2.5</sub> (fine particulate matter) pollution in China has been greatly reduced in recent years, especially since the implementation of Clean Air Action in 2013. Analysis of variations in the pollution related health burden and the driving factors has important implications for the policymakers to further improve the health benefit of air pollution controls. Here we adopted an annual population distribution estimate, disaggregated by age structure, together with PM<sub>2.5</sub> concentration and incidence data, to better estimate total PM<sub>2.5</sub> attributable mortality considering the effect of changing population size and age structure. We then quantified the contribution of each factor to the total variation of PM<sub>2.5</sub> attributable mortality both nationally and regionally. Our analysis showed that national PM<sub>2.5</sub> attributable mortality generally increased from 861,140 (95% confidence interval: 525,860~1,161,550) in 2004 to 932,500 (546,590~1,300,160) in 2017. In most 2<sup>nd</sup>- and higher-tier cities in China, which stand for highly developed cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, etc., the PM<sub>2.5</sub> health burden increased. Meanwhile, the decrease in city-level PM<sub>2.5</sub> health burden mainly happened in 3<sup>rd</sup>- and lower-tier cities, where local developments were relatively smaller. The effect of exposure to PM<sub>2.5</sub> on air pollution-related mortality has altered from aggravating to mitigating since 2012, and the abated PM<sub>2.5</sub> exposure resulted in a reduction of 19.7% of PM<sub>2.5</sub> attributable mortality between 2012 and 2017. However, such benefit was almost masked by the effect of the population aging, which brought an increase of 18.4% to the health burden. Our results implied that the increasing trend in China’s PM<sub>2.5</sub> health burden since 2006 was halted after 2012 due to the pollution control policies, and population aging impeded it from declining further. For future air pollution control and public health affairs, growing cities in China should focus attention on old-age care, where the growth of attributable mortality might occur.</p>

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