2. Industrial Pollution and Environmental Policy
Chapter 13
Industrial Pollution and Environmental Policy
This chapter:
Discusses the nature of industrial pollutants and the practices and social philosophies that allowed them to darken the skies, poison waters, and despoil land.
Discusses how massive regulatory programs developed to control industrial pollution.
Explains the current operation of these programs, how they affect corporations, and how well they work.
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3. The Indian Health Service Solves a Mystery Opening Case
Five cases of malignant mesothelioma, virtually always caused by exposure to asbestos, in a pueblo of 2,000 Indians puzzled health officials.
It was discovered that workers from a nearby plant discarded old asbestos insulation which was found by members of the tribe and brought back to the pueblo and put to many uses.
The story of what happened to the Indians is analogous to what has happened to large populations in industrial societies. In both cases, it was only after substantial exposures had occurred and sickness began to appear that government agencies mobilized to protect public health.
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4. Pollution
Pollution refers to the release of substances into the environment that inconvenience or endanger humans.
Much of it comes from natural sources.
Human activity adds more contaminants.
Industrial activity both harms human health and disturbs natural ecology.
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5. Less Developed Countries
Human Health
Health Risks Posed by Major Sources of Environmental Pollution
Percent of DALYs
Environmental Health Risk
Less Developed Countries
Developed Countries
Water supply and sanitation 7% 1%
Indoor air pollution 4
Urban air pollution 2 1
Agricultural chemicals and industrial waste
2.5
All pollution-related causes 18
4.5

6. The Biosphere
Ecosystems services are the productivity of natural ecosystems in creating food and fiber and in regulating climate, water, soil, nutrients, and other forms of natural capital.
Broad ecosystems are now degraded and under pressure as advances in human well-being have been achieved by exploiting ecosystem services.
The causes of ecosystem strain are multiple and complex, but they center on accelerating economic activity.
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7. Industrial Activity, Pollution, and the Environment
Today there are nations on every continent with ambitious development plans that put industry before environmental protection.
Much interest today is focused on the notion of sustainable development.
There is evidence that environmental quality in growing economies does not follow a path of long-term deterioration as in the old industrial revolution model.
Environmental Kuznets curve
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8. Ideas Shape Attitudes Toward the Environment
Dualism
Progress
Capitalism
Utilitarianism
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9. New Ideas Challenge the Old
Naturalist Aldo Leopold – inspired others to rethink traditional ideas about the man-nature relationship
Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess – deep ecology
Inspired anti-corporate government groups
Philosopher Peter Singer – speciesism
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10. Environmental Regulation in the United States
The dominant approach to industrial pollution control in the United States has been to pass laws that strictly regulate:
Emissions
Effluents
Waste
In the 1970s, Congress passed a remarkable string of new laws, creating a broad statutory base for regulating industry.
The Environmental Protection Agency
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11. Principal Areas of Environmental Policy: Air
The Clean Air Act
National air quality – criteria pollutants
Carbon monoxide (CO)
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2)
Sulfur dioxide (SO2)
Ozone (O3)
Particulate matter
Lead (Pb)
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12. Principal Areas of Environmental Policy: Air (continued)
Hazardous air pollutants (a/k/a air toxics) examples:
Arsenic
Benzene
Chromium
Radionuclides
Methyl chloride
The clean air act requires the EPA to set emission standards for 187 air toxics at levels that prevent disease and requires industry to use the maximum achievable control technology to comply.
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13. Principal Areas of Environmental Policy: Air (continued)
Acid rain is caused primarily by releases of two criteria pollutants:
Sulfur dioxide
Nitrogen oxides
Indoor air pollution
Ozone-destroying chemicals
Chlorofluorocarbons
Greenhouse gases
Greenhouse gases
Atmospheric gases that absorb energy radiated from the earth, preventing it from being released into space.
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14. Principal Areas of Environmental Policy: Water
Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972, usually called the Clean Water Act
National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) requires each industrial facility to get a permit specifying the volume of one or more substances it can pour into a water body.
Runoff is largely uncontrolled.
Agricultural
Urban
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15. Principal Areas of Environmental Policy: Land
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
Firms must label, handle, store, treat, and discard hazardous waste under strict guidelines, keeping meticulous records.
Difficult to administer
Difficult to comply
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16. RCRA Landfill Groundwater Monitoring Requirements
Re-label as Figure 13.5
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17. Principal Areas of Environmental Policy: Land (continued)
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980
Better known as Superfund so-named after the large trust fund it set up to pay for cleanups
Created to clean up abandoned toxic waste sites
The number of sites is higher than predicted and the cleaning process more difficult and expensive than envisioned.
Cleanup work started at 1,030 sites, however, only 325 have been fully restored and deleted from the list.
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18. Typical Rotary Kiln Incinerator at a Superfund Site
Re-label as Figure 13.6
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19. Concluding Observations
Industrial processes damage the environment and cause serious local and global deterioration.
The response has been to adopt a series of fairly rigid and expensive regulatory programs.
In the U.S. it is now the largest and most expensive area of regulation.
Uneven progress has been made in the attack on air, water, and land pollution.
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