Pollution, first large-scale industrial

The LeBlanc Process was the first large-scale industrial chemical process. The process produced large quantities of gaseous hydrochloric acid as a by-product that released into the air and caused what was probably the first large-scale industrial pollution. It was later found that this waste gas could be captured and reacted with manganese dioxide to produce gaseous chlorine. The LeBlanc Process was used until about 1861, after which it began to be replaced by the more efficient Solvay Process. [7]... 

P.N. Reed, Where even the birds cough The first British cases of large-scale atmospheric pollution by the chemical industry on Merseyside and Clydeside in the early 19th century , in M. Fetizon and W.J. Thomas eds.. The Role of Oxygen in Improving Chemical Processes Cdimhn ge, 1993), 115-122. 

---