United States pollution prevention

Thirteen hundred years later, controls on the use of coal in London were passed, marking the recorded start of air pollution control. But such controls were not enough to prevent the buildup of pollutants as by-products of industrialization air pollution was common to all industrialized nations by 1925. Air pollution is still a significant problem in urban centers worldwide. In the United States, pollutant emissions and air pollution concentrations have been falling, for the most part, since the 1970s. 

The Pollution Prevention Unit coordinates pollution prevention efforts tliroughout New York State. It protects, air, water, and land. It also works with all types and sizes of businesses and facilities. 

General support for science and technology remains strong in the United States (19,20), but actual financial support for scientific research remains under increased pressure from competing critical needs, including health cate, crime prevention, education, pollution control, and national defense. 

Besides the above federal laws, all 50 U.S. states have also passed environmental laws. As previously mentioned, both the United States and the state of New Jersey have passed Pollution Prevention Acts (295). 

Table 25-8 provides a rough timetable demonstrating the United States approach to waste management. Note how waste management has begun to shift from pollution control-driven activities to pollution prevention activities. 

The application of waste-management practices in the United States has recently moved toward securing a new pollution prevention ethic. The performance of pollution prevention assessments and their subsequent implementation will encourage increased activity into methods that 1 further aid in the reduction of hazardous wastes. One of the most important and propitious consequences of the pollution-prevention movement will be the development of life-cycle design and standardized hfe-cycle cost-accounting procedures. These two consequences are briefly discussed in the two paragraphs that follow. Additional information is provided in a later subsection. 

Lacl<. of markets. The implementation of pollution-prevention processes and the production of environmentally friendly products will be of no avail if markets do not exist for such goods. As an example, the recychng of newspaper in the United States has resulted in an overabundance of waste paper without markets prepared to take advantage of this raw material. 

The United States Clean Air Act of 1977 set as a national goal the prevention of any future degradation and the reduction of any existing impairment of visibility in mandatory class I federal areas caused by anthropogenic air pollution. The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 reinforce the support of these goals. (See Chapter 22 foj a discussion of federal classes of areas.) These areas include most of the major national parks, such as the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Zion Park. This portion of the Clean Air Act ad-... 

The pollutants, source categories, and affected facilities for which the United States has established New Source Performance Standards are listed in Table 25-1. Certain categories listed in Table 25-1 are subject to U.S. Prevention of Significant Deterioration (of air quality) (PSD) review if their emission potential of a regulated pollutant exceeds 100 tons per year. In... 

Green Chemistry is the utilization of a set of principles that reduces or eliminates the use or generation of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture and application of chemical processes. This non-regulatory approach for pollution prevention occupies a pivotal position in the management of hazardous substances and has been quite successful as evidenced, for example, in the United States by the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. ... 

In the United States, several federal programmes and focused regulations that incorporate elements of green chemistry have been put into place to reduce risks. The Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 has clearly stated that pollution prevention at the source is the highest and most desired level of environmental protection. ... 

U.S. EPA, Pollution Prevention Act of 1990, United States Code Title 42, U.S. EPA, Washington, DC, available at http //www.epa.gov/p2/pubs/p2policy/actl990.htm, October 2006. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency (2011) Methodology document for the ecological Structure-Activity Relationship Model (ECOSAR) Class Program MS-Windows Version 1.1 Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, Washington, DC. http //www.epa.gov/ oppt/newchems/tools/ecosartechfinal.pdf. Accessed 09 Mar 2012... 

The factors are discussed which lead to the formation of environmental regulations in the United States, following the growing realisation over the last 150 years of the environmental impact of the new chemicals which were being developed. Initiatives for new regulations often come from the public, and their concerns at the time, particularly in relation to pollution prevention, air quality, and the protection of children s health. Current environmental regulations are discussed along with their impact on industrial research and development. Future trends are forecast to be related to air quality, children s health, and pollution prevention. 11 refs. 

Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 makes it the national policy of the United States to reduce or eliminate the generation of waste at the source whenever feasible and directs the EPA to undertake a multimedia program of information collection, technology transfer, and financial assistance to the states to implement this policy and to promote the use of source reduction techniques. 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Progress in the Prevention and Contrd of Air Pollution in 1973. Annual Report of the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to the Congress of the United States, in Compliance with the Clean Air Act as Amended, January 1974. pp. 41-64. 

The period between 1984 and 1986 marks the beginning of the current P2 movement in the United States. Since that time, the pollution prevention idea has grown into a significant international movement. 

In the United States a comprehensive document has been pubhshed by the EPA [25] outlining Best Available Treatment options and the regulatory treatment of effluents arising from pharmaceutical manufacture. However, the most comprehensive control system is currently that provided in the EU by the Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control [26], and this is becoming a model for the development of similar legislation across the world. 

Nuclear energy is cost competitive with fossil fuel, has very low greenhouse gas emission, and creates far less air pollution. However, fear of potential accidents and intractable issues of waste containment have prevented construction of nuclear power plants in the United States for three decades. 

---