Air Pollution: A Brief History

With air pollution gaining an increasingly important position on International agenda, surprisingly we would found that it is not newly introduced to our blue planet at all. Long before the industrial revolution, both humans and nature itself have been producing air pollutant.

Air pollution, by definition, is 'a presence of toxic chemicals or compounds in the air that lowers the quality of air and poses a health risk'. While the air pollutant is the substance causing the pollution. The source of air pollutant can be natural, such as volcanic activities, or man-made, for example, due to the burning of fossil fuels.

As early as 16th century, there was already documented record of poor air quality in cities like London. At that time, the air pollution was mainly caused by the usage of coal. During 18th and 19th centuries, the emerging industry increased the coal consumption, and combined with the domestic use of coal for heat, air pollution escalated dramatically in the urban area.  London has even once been called the 'city of fog', while the 'fog' is actually smog, which was a form of air pollution. Nowadays, sources of air pollutant become much more diverse compared with the Middle Age. However, the public and the states are more and more aware of the air pollution around us and are seeking for ways to act on the problem.

 In this blog, I am going to write about the major historical events about air pollution such as the Meuse Valley fog of Belgium in 1930 and London's Great smog in 1952, and effects of worldwide air pollution nowadays. Through the history and present-day examples, we would be able to see how the degraded air quality and the pollutants (such as SO2) influence our lives and our health. Moreover, I would write about those regulations about air pollution in the past, at present and hopefully in the future.