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Editor's Notes

• #2: The air we breathe has never been pure. There have always been natural and manmade sources of air pollution. Lets look at the evolution of air quality management in the US.
• #3: Queen Eleanor recorded the first complaint against dirty air in England when she visited Nottingham in 1257.  Londoners spoke of air pollution in the 14th century, and Italians were allegedly killed by airborne mercury poisoning in the 18th century. According to one historian, mining operations in medieval England caused so much pollution that King Edward I, in 1307, issued a royal proclamation making the burning of coal a capital offense while Parliament was in session.
• #4: 1930 Meuse Valley, Belgium, air inversion results in 60 dead and thousands sick from exposure to industrial air emissions. Additional Information: An atmospheric event known as a thermal inversion trapped fog over a 15-mile-long stretch of the Meuse Valley that contained many farms, villages, steel mills, and chemical plants. At the end of the first day, many residents complained about nausea, short breath, stinging eyes, and burning throats. In three days, 60 people had died and thousands more were ill with an unknown ‘disease’. Some think that the valley had been sprayed with poison gas, fumes had leaked from a chemical plant, or even that bubonic plague had broken out. The sickness was actually caused by pollutants trapped beneath the dense fog clouds. Death rates were subsequently made ten times above normal, especially among the elderly and those with respiratory problems. Thirty different chemicals were identified as causing the illness.
• #5: The iron and steel industry took hold in Pittsburgh in the late 1700s and by the 1820s had become the city's leading industry.  For the next hundred and fifty years the steel industry was king.  As the hub of the nation's steel industry, Pittsburgh supplied the steel for bridges, railways and skyscrapers.  Just mention the word "Pittsburgh" and its "smoky city" image instantly comes to mind. While these images are hard for local officials to put behind them, air quality in Pittsburgh from approximately 1800 through 1950 was one of the worst urban environmental problems in American history. Streetlights burned 24 hours a day because the dense smoke blocked out sunlight, casting the city in a shroud of perpetual darkness. Simply standing outside soiled people's clothing, making Pittsburgh a "two-shirts-a-day town." Pittsburgh led the nation in respiratory and lung disease. But in a city built on the steel industry, smoke meant economic prosperity.
• #6: While constructing the Empire State Building smog “clouded” the view of New York City in 1930. And more than three decades later New York City was buried under a “sea of smog.”
• #7: In October 1948, a thick cloud of air pollution formed above the industrial town of Donora, Pennsylvania. The cloud which lingered for five days, killed 20 people and caused sickness in 6,000 of the town's 14,000 people. Additional Information: The small industrial town of Donora, Pennsylvania, experienced one of the worst cases of air pollution in the history of the United States. Sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and metal dust descended from nearby zinc smelter smokestacks and were trapped by stagnant air. The result was a thick, poisonous cloud that blanketed the town for five days. At that time, most people were still unaware of the potentially deadly health effects of deadly air pollution; it was viewed mainly as a nuisance. So, although the residents of Donora could barely see through the smoggy air, they continued with their daily routines as much as possible, oblivious to the danger they were in. It was not until the smog lifted, leaving twenty one people dead and six thousand people—a third of the town’s population— sick or hospitalized, that many began to realize that air pollution was more than a nuisance.
• #8: Dense fog over Los Angeles in 1955. Notice the buildings project above the base of the inversion layer while smog remains below.
• #9: In London in December 1952, a killer smog so thick that residents could see no more than three feet claimed 4,000 lives.   Additional Information: London Fog (1952). The episode that proved to be the most dramatic and costly to human health occurred in the London Fog of 1952. In a five-day period, a temperature inversion covered the Thames River Valley, trapping deadly acid aerosols in the atmosphere. More people died in this acute air pollution event than in any other episode in recorded history.
• #10: These episodes provided the impetus for regulations to reduce emissions, and associated air quality improvements.
• #11: It’s July 1970, people are getting sick and dying. President Nixon has just appointed the first Administrator of the US EPA. How will they tackle air pollution? Guide teachers to:   1. ID staff – appoint the first EPA “Administrator” and have the “Administrator” choose other participants to lead the tasks that follow.   2. ID pollutants - two paths for control   Air Quality Common (criteria) Pollutants (6) – ozone, particle pollution, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, lead, carbon monoxide Air Toxics (187) Ex: mercury, benzene    a. NAAQS - air quality management process (work through this with the group) b. Toxics - 187 - controlled at source using control technologies demonstrated by the best performing facilities.   Air Quality Management - 3. Set allowable limits based on health - don’t set standards based on nuisance (odor & visibility) - National standards - states must comply   4. Control Program  Guide them to say that in order to be sure the allowable limits are met there must be a control program. Use monitoring, emissions and modeling data to understand current conditions and develop a control strategy that fits the needs of individual areas.   Control Program  Monitors that give real world, real time data.   Focus efforts on non-attainment areas Prevents significant deterioration in others     States implement this program through operating permits for industrial facilities. Vehicle emission controls, etc. The state implementation plan (SIP) describes all enforceable efforts in place to reduce air emissions. EPA must approve each SIP.   On-going monitoring and a strong enforcement program ensure that the control program is effective.   You’ve done a great job - you and your staff have set standards and instituted an excellent control program.   ____________ comes to you and says that a significant percentage of air pollution results from personal actions. Now what are you going to do?   Wave air brochures and newspaper to get them to come up with “educating the public.”     5. To reflect advances in science, standards are to be reviewed every 5 years   What are the results of your work?   Show final overhead - Emissions vs. other factors GDP, etc.
• #12: 5. To reflect advances in science, standards are to be reviewed every 5 years   What are the results of your work?   Show final overhead - Emissions vs. other factors GDP, etc. We are making significant progress in the pollutants we have targeted.