Air Quality Legislation
Air quality legislation refers to laws and regulations aimed at protecting and improving the quality of the air we breathe. These measures typically set limits on pollutants emitted by industrial processes, vehicles, and other sources, and establish standards for air quality. Over time, air quality legislation has evolved to address new environmental challenges and scientific understanding of air pollution.
7 Key excerpts on "Air Quality Legislation"
eBook - ePubEnvironmental Policy
Implementation and Enforcement
- Neil Hawke(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Overall, the strategy is built on an effects-based approach and underpinned by sustainable development principles and the need to protect human health. The strategy is provided for by the Environment Act 1995 which obliges the Secretary of State to prepare, publish and keep it under review. In turn, the Environment Agency is obliged to have regard to the Strategy. It is further acknowledged by the Act that local authorities will assess local air quality and, as necessary, designate air quality management areas where standards or objectives are not being realised, or are being threatened. Designation of such an area further obliges the local authority responsible to produce an action plan identifying remedial measures deemed to be necessary. The United States The dominant legislation for present purposes is the federal Clean Air Act 1970. The Act provides for national ambient air quality standards, national emissions standards for hazardous pollutants, and new source performance standards. National ambient air quality standards are referable to those pollutants (carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen oxides, ozone, particulates and sulphur oxides) found by the Environmental Protection Agency to have an adverse effect on human health, no matter what their source. Evidence of such adverse effects is prepared by the Agency, together with the devices and techniques which may be deployed in order to control atmospheric emissions. For these purposes so-called ‘primary’ standards are prescribed in relation to the protection of human health while so-called ‘secondary’ standards are prescribed by reference to rather wider criteria concerning the public welfare. Primary standards are determined by reference to the most vulnerable where atmospheric pollutants are concerned while secondary standards operate by reference a wide variety of factors, such as adverse effects on vegetation and ecosystems...
eBook - ePubAir Pollution
Measurement, Modelling and Mitigation, Fourth Edition
- Abhishek Tiwary, Ian Williams(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
...Chapter 14 Air quality standards and legislations 14.1 WHY DO WE NEED AIR QUALITY STANDARDS? Air quality standards are emission rates or concentrations or deposition rates that are designed to protect people and the environment from harm. The Earth’s atmosphere is one of the global commons – those regions, which also include Antarctica, the ocean floor and outer space, over which no one nation has individual control. There is clear distinction between airspace, which is the 3D volume extending from the surface of a nation up to the top of the atmosphere, and the air that flows through it. Although each nation has sole responsibility for its own airspace, it has joint responsibility for the air within it. A variety of different philosophies has been used to control air pollution. They fall into three general categories. Historically, the philosophy has focused on emissions standards, the assumption being that if we set appropriate maximum emission concentrations, then ambient concentration targets can be achieved. In Europe and the United States, legislation has been framed in terms of air quality standards (AQS) – potential new emitters have to show that their emissions will not cause AQS to be exceeded. On a larger scale, the critical loads and levels approach (see Chapter 10) is a more recent concept that relates the maximum deposition fluxes of gaseous and liquid pollutants to their effects on local ecosystems. The concept depends on sophisticated dispersion modelling to calculate the maximum emissions that can be accepted if critical loads and levels at a given receptor site are not to be exceeded. There is a common thread to these ideas. It is assumed that exposure to a pollutant stresses an organism, and that the organism’s natural repair processes can make good any damage provided that the exposure does not rise above some threshold value...
eBook - ePub- Haneen Khreis, Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, Josias Zietsman, Tara Ramani, Haneen Khreis, Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, Josias Zietsman, Tara Ramani(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Elsevier(Publisher)
...As a result, an Air Pollution Control Act was promulgated in 1955 which paved the way for a series of air pollution reform acts later. Prior to 1955, only a limited number of air ordinances were installed in various municipalities, primarily cities with high industrial activities. For instance, Chicago and Cincinnati first established smoke ordinances in 1881 and Philadelphia passed an ordinance limiting the amount of smoke in flues, chimneys, and open spaces in 1904 (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), 2018). In 1947, California authorized the creation of Air Pollution Control Districts in every county of the state. There have been several amendments made to The Air Pollution Control Act of 1955. The Clean Air Act of 1963 was the first federal legislation regarding air pollution control. It established a federal program within the US Public Health Service and authorized research into techniques for monitoring and controlling air pollution. In 1967, the Air Quality Act of 1967 was passed to expand federal government’s activities in air pollution control. In accordance to this law, enforcement proceedings were initiated in areas subject to interstate air pollution transport. As part of these proceedings, the federal government for the first time conducted extensive ambient air monitoring studies and stationary source inspections (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), 2018). In 1969, another amendment was made to the act. This amendment further expanded the research on low-emissions, fuels, and automobiles (Forswall & Higgins, 2005). Public awareness on the state of the environment intensified in the 1960s and reached a new peak in the 1970s when the nation went through a tumultuous era of anti-war, liberalism, civil and women’s rights, energy crisis, and environmental movements. The 1970 Clean Air Act was enacted and completely replaced the 1967 Air Quality Act...
eBook - ePubAn Interactive History of the Clean Air Act
Scientific and Policy Perspectives
- Jonathan M Davidson, Joseph M Norbeck(Authors)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- Elsevier(Publisher)
...2. An Expanding Federal Presence in Air Quality Controls Chapter 2 traces the development of federal initiatives in air pollution control from 1955 to the present. It begins with analyses of prior initiatives with particular attention to their respective stakeholder interactions. The Air Pollution Control Act of 1955 marked the first major commitment by funding research and for technical assistance to state and local initiatives. The 1963 Clean Air Act expanded federal presence through encouragement of control standards and providing national authority to abate pollution when requested by state authorities. In 1965, the Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act authorized the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW) to set national standards for automobile emissions beginning with the 1968 model year, provided that these would be economically and technologically feasible. The Air Quality Act of 1967 directed DHEW to designate Air Quality Control Regions in consultation with state and local jurisdictions. These regions were charged with developing standards and control programs. Congressional disappointment with earlier permissive approaches led to enactment of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970. This law mandated the establishment of national quality standards to be implemented by states subject to federal certification. Supplemental amendments in 1990 specified 182 toxic pollutants to be regulated through a national permit program administered at the state level...
eBook - ePubThe Green Years, 1964-1976
When Democrats and Republicans United to Repair the Earth
- Gregg Coodley, David Sarasohn(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- University Press of Kansas(Publisher)
...In January 1967 Johnson proposed strengthening the law, saying, “The situation does not exist because it was inevitable nor because it cannot be controlled. Air pollution is the inevitable consequence of neglect.” 25 The resulting Air Quality Act of 1967 set standards for air quality rather than specific emissions requirements, and created an explicit national goal “to protect and enhance the quality of the Nation’s air resources so as to promote the public health and welfare and productive capacity of its population.” 26 Muskie won a unanimous vote in his committee and in the Senate for the measure, leading Senator John Sherman Cooper to proclaim, “I have never seen in my service in the Senate a better demonstration of the committee legislative process.” 27 The act gave the federal government authority over ambient air quality standards, as well as some authority over industrial and motor vehicle emissions. The federal government would undertake research and fund states to help them set their rules. If states failed to act, HEW could set the standards for them, and could sue states if air pollution posed “an imminent and substantial endangerment” to public health. At the signing ceremony in November, Johnson said, “I would like to begin this morning by reading you a little weather report. . . . ‘[D]irty water and black snow pour from dismal air . . . to the partial slush that waits for them below.’ Now that is not a description of Boston, Chicago, New York or even Washington D.C. It is from Dante’s ‘Inferno’. . . . But doesn’t it sound familiar? Isn’t a forecast that fits almost any large American city today?” 28 He continued, “Either we stop poisoning the air or we become a nation in gas masks.” 29 Johnson admitted that the law was not as strong as he wanted, and that “additional, bolder legislation will be needed in the years ahead.” 30 Significant weaknesses in the law soon became apparent...
eBook - ePub- Susan Wolf, Neil Stanley(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...EU) and international levels. • Air pollution regulation dating back to at least the nineteenth century with a focus upon visible air pollutants, has evolved from a localised issue to a national regional (e.g. EU) and global challenge. • International law has responded to climate change issues by agreeing a series of framework Conventions supplemented by more detailed Protocols mirroring the pattern of EU and Member State air pollution regulation. • The UK and the EU have adopted new policy instruments to address greenhouse gas emissions (e.g. the UK Climate Change Levy and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme). • In regard to emissions from transport the EU uses a product-standard regulatory approach e.g. standards relating to the composition of motor vehicle fuels. • The EU is the most important regulatory body involved in the setting of air quality standards which apply in England and Wales. The EU’s framework strategy on air quality and daughter directives specify quality limits for particular substances. • Permit-based regulatory controls relate to emissions from industry and power stations. • The EU has adopted innovative policy instruments to tackle air pollution (e.g. voluntary agreements with the motor vehicle industry and a European-wide emissions trading scheme). • In view of the fact that EU directives are addressed to the governments of Member States, the Secretary of State has national responsibility for compliance with European law relating to air pollution, but at local level it is the Environment Agency and the local authorities who have practical responsibility for air pollution regulation. • Air-quality law in England and Wales is tied to the national air quality strategy...
eBook - ePubUrban Air Pollution in Asian Cities
Status, Challenges and Management
- Dieter Schwela, Gary Haq, Cornie Huizenga, Wha-Jin Han, Herbert Fabian, May Ajero.(Authors)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...The effectiveness of an AQM strategy is dependent on the implementation of a number of measures. These include comprehensive legislation, emission inventories, air quality monitoring, dispersion modelling, exposure and damage assessments and emission standards. However, legislative powers and resources to implement and enforce air pollution regulation and the availability of a range of cost-effective pollution control measures are vital to improving air quality. Some form of air quality monitoring is undertaken in the majority of Asian cities. However, the extent of monitoring, the types of pollutants monitored and the reliability of data collated vary widely between cities and countries in the region often reflecting the level of economic development. At present monitoring in peri-urban and rural areas is rarely undertaken. Yet this is essential in order to understand the potential impacts on agriculture and ecosystems and the contribution of long-range pollution to urban air pollution. Air quality standards are another important aspect of AQM. In areas where air quality standards are exceeded on a regular basis, measures need to be taken to reduce air pollution levels. National air quality standards, however, are often based on a number of constraints such as economic and technological feasibility, which do not guarantee that they are protecting human health and the environment. The WHO air quality guidelines (WHO, 2000; 2005) are derived from epidemiological and toxicological studies in such a way as to minimize the risk of health and environmental impacts. For PM, SO 2 and O 3, however, it has been generally accepted that existing studies provide no indication of any reliable threshold of effect. National and local government authorities in Asia have adopted a range of air quality standards either based on WHO guidelines or USEPA standards. These have tended to differ from country to country (see Tables 4.1 – 4.6)...
