Air Pollution

PUBLIC RECOGNITION of the harmful nature of air pollution arose in the United States in October 1948 when, over a five-day period in Donora, Pennsylvania, an air pollutant emission lead to 19 deaths. Additionally, 10 percent of the population of Donora was severely affected by the exposure that was compounded by the effects of weather keeping the pollutants at ground level.

International attention to the issue of air pollution developed in 1952 when, in London, England, particulate matter and sulfur dioxide built up over a three-day period and caused 3,000 to 4,000 deaths. For decades the lead and chemical industry subjected workers and the public to a variety of hazardous air pollutants by withholding industry data reflecting its harmfulness and even developing trade associations designed to lobby legislatures, intimidate independent researchers, sponsor scientists to lie to the public about harmfulness of lead in the body, and pressure hospitals to withhold evidence about industrial poisoning of workers and the air.

The federal government began to legislate against air pollutants in the late 1940s and 1950s, but it wasn't until 1970 that the Clean Air Act was passed mandating controls over the concentration and emission of a variety of pollutants, primarily those recognized as carcinogens and irritants. Polluting the air is against the law in the United States and has been since the Clean Air Act was passed. Although some types of air pollution are naturally [Page 21]occurring, such as that emanating from volcanoes and the decomposition of vegetation, the most problematic forms of air pollution come from industrial sources including fossil-fuel fired electricity and a variety of manufacturing plants worldwide.

And although automobile and diesel exhaust remains a primary pollutant of the air, industrial air pollution remains one of the most significant sources of air pollution and remains a serious problem in the United States and globally. When air pollution exceeds allowable legal limits, or when forbidden chemicals are released or emitted into the air, this is a form of white-collar crime referred to as environmental crime. Like many other white-collar crimes, much of this air pollution is the result of industrial attempts to increase power and profits.