tailieunhanh - ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF AIR POLLUTION AND PROTECTION

Formaldehyde is widely used to manufacture building materials and numerous household products, and is also a by-product of combustion and certain other natural processes. Primary sources include pressed wood products such as particleboard, plywood, and medium density fiberboard (MDF), which is commonly used in flooring, furniture, shelving, cabinetry, paper products, and decorative fabrics and textiles. It also may be used as a biocide in certain paints, coatings, adhesives, and personal care products. Based on more than 350 measurements collected in residences and schools, AQS studies have found typical concentrations range from ppm to ppm in homes | WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY - Environmental History Of Air Pollution And Protection - Stephen Mosley ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF AIR POLLUTION AND PROTECTION Stephen Mosley School of Cultural Studies Leeds Metropolitan University Leeds UK. Keywords smoke pollution fossil fuels transboundary pollution acid rain photochemical smog ozone depletion climate change air pollution legislation air pollution history. Contents 1. Introduction 2. Preindustrial Air Pollution 3. The Age of Smoke - 1950 4. The Era of Invisible Threats - present 5. Concluding Remarks Acknowledgements Glossary Bibliography Biographical Sketch Summary Concerns about air pollution have a long history. Complaints about its effects on human health and the built environment were first voiced by the citizens of ancient Athens and Rome. Urban air quality however worsened during the Industrial Revolution as the widespread use of coal in factories in Britain Germany the United States and other nations ushered in an age of smoke. Despite the tangible nature of this form of air pollution and the harm it caused to the public s health early laws to control smoke were generally weak and ineffective. Not until the mid-twentieth century after air pollution disasters such as London s Great Smog demonstrated conclusively the damage it caused to human health were stringent national laws to abate smoke finally introduced to clear the skies over the cities of the first industrial nations. In terms of their scale the effects of coal smoke in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were mainly local and regional. But after the Second World War a number of invisible threats began to emerge - acid rain photochemical smog ozone depletion and climate change - that were transnational and global in character. It often required the cooperation of scientific experts across both disciplinary and national borders as well as computer simulation of the impacts of air pollution to make these new threats visible to the