1. Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill/Irwin

2. 13 - 2 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.

3. 13 - 3 Human Health Percent of DALYs Environmental Health RiskLess Developed Countries Developed Countries Water supply and sanitation 7%1% Indoor air pollution40 Urban air pollution21 Agricultural chemicals and industrial waste 12.5 All pollution-related causes 184.5 Health Risks Posed by Major Sources of Environmental Pollution

4. 13 - 4 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.

5. 13 - 5 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

6. 13 - 6 Ideas Shape Attitudes Toward the Environment  Dualism  Progress  Capitalism  Utilitarianism

7. 13 - 7 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

8. 13 - 8 Principal Areas of Environmental Policy: Air  The Clean Air Act  National air quality – criteria pollutants  Carbon monoxide (CO)  Nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 )  Sulfur dioxide (SO 2 )  Ozone (O 3 )  Particulate matter  Lead (Pb)

9. 13 - 9 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.

10. 13 - 10 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.

11. 13 - 11 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

12. 13 - 12 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

13. 13 - 13 RCRA Landfill Groundwater Monitoring Requirements

14. 13 - 14 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.