Air pollutant

“ The Parties agree to cooperate and exchange information with respect to:
(a) their monitoring of the effects of changes in air pollutant concentrations and deposition with respect to changes in various effects categories, e.g. aquatic ecosystems, visibility, and forests;
(b) their determination of any effects of atmospheric pollution on human health and ecosystems, e.g. research on health effects of acid aerosols, research on the long-term effects of low concentrations of air pollutants on ecosystems, possibly in a critical loads framework ”

“ Secondary air quality standards "specify a level of air quality the attainment and maintenance of which in the judgment of the Administrator, based on such criteria, is requisite to protect the public welfare from any known or anticipated adverse effects associated with the presence of such air pollutant in the ambient air." ”

“ With respect to any air pollutant for which air quality criteria are issued after the date of enactment of the Clean Air Amendments of 1970, the Administrator shall publish, simultaneously with the issuance of such criteria and information, proposed national primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for any such pollutant. ”

“ Section 126 [p1089] further provides that neighboring states may petition the Administrator for a finding that a major source emits or would emit any air pollutant in violation of the prohibition of section 7410 (a) (2) (E) (i) . The question which has plagued the EPA and reviewing courts since that time is, assuming that no upwind state can transmit utterly pure air to its neighbor, how much pollution is too much under the Act? ”

“ The Administrator may establish a lesser quantity, or in the case of radionuclides different criteria, for a major source than that specified in the previous sentence, on the basis of the potency of the air pollutant, persistence, potential for bioaccumulation, other characteristics of the air pollutant, or other relevant factors.
(2) Area source The term “area source” means any stationary source of hazardous air pollutants that is not a major source. ”

“ Emissions trading may be allowed among pollution sources within an airshed.
SECTION 10. Management of Nonattainment Areas. - The Department shall designate areas where specific pollutants have already exceeded ambient standards as nonattainment areas. The Department shall prepare and implement a program that will prohibit new sources of exceeded air pollutant without a corresponding reduction in existing sources. ”

“ Thus, a substance emitted into the air which endangers climate is, under the express terms of the relevant statutory provisions, subject to regulation under section 202.
The second step in regulating air pollution from motor vehicles involves deciding exactly what the regulatory standard for the pollutant (s) in question should be, and when the standard should be effective and for how long. The pertinent remainder of section 202 (a) is concerned with these kinds of questions. At this stage of regulatory decisionmaking, factors beyond “endangerment” come into play. ”

“ In order to bring into compliance a region of dirty air, a so-called "nonattainment area," the plan must establish a maximum emission level for a pollutant by individual large-scale producers. The maximum level is called an "emissions limit" and a large-scale producer a "major stationary source."
The Cleveland, Ohio region is a nonattainment area for sulfur dioxide; the region includes areas where the concentration of sulfur dioxide in the ambient air exceeds the national standard. ”

“ Given that air pollutants associated with climate change are accumulating in the atmosphere at an alarming rate, the window of opportunity in which we can mitigate the dangers posed by climate change is rapidly closing. ”

“ A variety of air pollutants are killing trees and lakes and damaging buildings and cultural treasures, close to and sometimes thousands of miles from points of emission. The acidification of the environment threatens large areas of Europe and North America. ”

“ Convinced that transboundary air pollution can cause significant harm to natural resources of vital environmental, cultural and economic importance, and to human health in both countries;
Desiring that emissions of air pollutants from sources within their countries not result in significant transboundary air pollution ”

“ All language referring to effects on welfare includes, but is not limited to, effects on soils, water, crops, vegetation, manmade materials, animals, wildlife, weather, visibility, and climate, damage to and deterioration of property, and hazards to transportation, as well as effects on economic values and on personal comfort and well-being, whether caused by transformation, conversion, or combination with other air pollutants. ”

“ Identification of regionally representative and critical ecosystems for research. (2) Evaluation of risks to ecosystems exposed to air pollutants, including characterization of the causes and effects of chronic and episodic exposures to air pollutants and determination of the reversibility of those effects. (3) Development of improved atmospheric dispersion models and monitoring systems and networks for evaluating and quantifying exposure to and effects of multiple environmental stresses associated with air pollution. ”

“ In regions where smokeless fuel is used there practically is no smoke problem, and the pollution of the air is confined almost wholly to wind-blown dust and to local sources of pollution. In localities swept by sea winds, salt derived from wind-whipped spray is usually a factor in the floating dust. ”

“ But I felt at the same time that the subject of air pollution in manufacturing towns really deserved more attention than it has generally received; for the evil is a growing one, and I believe we shall realize one day, as the result of a very costly experience, the same necessity for breathing an untainted atmosphere as we now do for drinking unpolluted drinking water, or for consuming unadulterated food. ”

“ Any pride we may have in our surroundings rarely extends beyond our own four walls, or, if we possess them, our garden palings. We suffer our river to become an open sewer, our buildings to be defaced by soot, our streets to be disfigured by huge advertisement hoardings, and our atmosphere to be polluted by smoke.
If the pollution of the river and the air, and the existence of unwholesome courts and uninhabitable dwellings offended the aesthetic sense only, we might wisely leave their disappearance to the improving hand of Time. ”

“ The fossil fuel emissions of principal concern in terms of urban pollution, whether from stationary or mobil sources, include sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, various volatile organic compounds, fly ash, and other suspended particles. They can injure human health and the environment, bringing increased respiratory complaints, some potentially fatal. But these pollutants can be contained so as to protect human health and the environment and all governments should take steps to achieve acceptable levels of air quality. ”

“ In other words, regulating the buildup of CO [ 2 ] and other greenhouse gases in the upper reaches of the atmosphere, which is alleged to be causing global climate change, is not akin to regulating the concentration of some substance that is polluting the air.
We need look no further than the dictionary for confirmation that this interpretation of "air pollution" is eminently reasonable. The definition of "pollute," of course, is " [t] o make or render impure or unclean." ”

“ This type of pollution, wherein very small particles escape and stay in the atmosphere, has been denominated as the type of air pollution [p230] which produces the greatest hazard to human health. [4] We have thus a nuisance which not only is damaging to the plaintiffs, [5] but also is decidedly harmful to the general public.
I see grave dangers in overruling our long-established rule of granting an injunction where a nuisance results in substantial continuing damage. ”

“ Today I'm announcing new actions we're taking to protect our air, our water, and some of our most precious lands.
One of the simplest but most potent tools in our fight against pollution is public information. By requiring industries to tell communities how much they pollute the air and water, we empower citizens to fight back and create a powerful incentive for industry to pollute less. Remarkably, in the decades since the public's right-to-know about chemical releases became the law of the land, industry's toxic pollution has fallen nearly 50 percent. ”

“ Despite this, air pollution has today reached serious levels in the cities of several industrial and newly industrialized countries, as well as in those of most developing countries, which in some cases are by now the world's most polluted urban areas. ”

“ But in all densely-populated countries there is an enormous artificial production of dust—from our ploughed fields, from our roads and streets, where dust is continually formed by the iron-shod hoofs of innumerable horses, but chiefly from our enormous combustion of fuel pouring into the air volumes of smoke charged with unconsumed particles of carbon. This superabundance of dust, probably many times greater than that which would be produced under the more natural conditions which prevailed when our country was more thinly populated, must almost certainly produce some effect on our climate ”

“ We will take strong measures against air and water pollution. This year, we will ensure that chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen emissions are both reduced by 2%, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions are cut by 3%, and the density of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in key areas continues to fall. We will focus on promoting the reduction of emissions from the burning of coal and motor vehicles. ”

“ Environment:
current issues: air pollution from industrial emissions; rivers
polluted from raw sewage, heavy metals, detergents; deforestation;
forest damage from air pollution and resulting acid rain ”

“ A single source may pollute the air with smoke and chemicals, the land with solid wastes, and a river or lake with chemical and other wastes. Control of the air pollution may produce more solid wastes, which then pollute the land or water. Control of the water-polluting effluent may convert it into solid wastes, which must be disposed of on land.
Similarly, some pollutants—chemicals, radiation, pesticides—appear in all media. Successful control of them at present requires the coordinated efforts of a variety of separate agencies and departments. The results are not always successful. ”

“ In manufacturing districts where soft coal is extensively used as power fuel the smoke pall may be dense enough to hide the outlines of large objects at a distance of 4 or 5 miles. A low-lying lid holds the smoke pollution close to the ground and impairs seeing very materially. The airman may fly above the lid into a region of clear air; the marine pilot, except in harbors, is out of the way of smoke; the locomotive engineer, who cannot avoid the smoke pall, sometimes finds it disconcerting. ”

“ The same Republicans who are talking about preserving the environment have nominated a man who last year made the preposterous statement, and I quote, "Eighty percent of our air pollution comes from plants and trees." ”

“ The forces of nature,—the winds, sunlight, rain, and growing vegetation,—all of great power and universal distribution and application, restore the balance, and purify the air. As to the principal gases, the air of the city does not differ materially from that of rural sections. There is, however, a vastly greater quantity of dust and smoke in the air of towns. The breathing of this dust, to a greater or less extent laden with bacteria, fungi, and the germs of disease, is an ever-present and most potent menace to public and personal health. ”

“ The pollution of the atmosphere has increased with civilization. Not only are the gases from our heating and power plants blown into the air with half-consumed matters in the shape of soot and cinders, but from chemical industries acid gases and other noxious products are allowed to escape and to drift whither they will. ”

“ Moreover, it is significant that Congress has recently acknowledged that more often than not the "margins of safety" that are incorporated into air quality standards turn out to be very modest or nonexistent, as new information reveals adverse health effects at pollution levels once thought to be harmless. See H.R.Rep.No.95-294, supra, at 103-117. ”

“ We will coordinate efforts to prevent and control air pollution in regions where it presents a problem. We will press ahead with the nationwide development and upgrading of urban sewage treatment facilities, and strengthen comprehensive efforts aimed at controlling agricultural pollution from non-point sources and at improving the water environment in river basin areas. We will step · up efforts to deal with industrial pollution at the source and conduct online monitoring of all polluting enterprises. ”

“ It might be more powerfully available than the imagined condensation of a cloud into rain by the reverberation caused by the firing of a range of cannon.
But what is the practical benefit of this information? If electricity deposits smoke, it might be made available in many ways. The fumes from chemical works might be condensed; and the air in large cities, otherwise polluted, might be purified and rendered innocuous. The smoke of chimneys in manufacturing works might be prevented from entering the atmosphere at all. In flour-mills and coal-mines the fine dust is dangerously explosive. ”