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Industrial Pollution and Environmental Policy
Industrial Pollution and Environmental Policy
ChapterChapter 14
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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.
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 where it was found by members of the tribe and brought back to the pueblo and put to many uses.
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.14-3
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.
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.
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.14-4
Human Health
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.14-5
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 0
Urban air pollution 2 1
Agricultural chemicals and industrial waste
1 2.5
All pollution-related causes 18 4.5
The Biosphere
Among the unintended effects of global economic growth within the biosphere are: Disruption of natural chemistry Land conversion Degradation of broad ecosystems
Full consequences of these disruptions within the biosphere are unknown.
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.14-6
Industrial Activity, Pollution, and the Environment
Economic activity is the source of enduring pollution problems.
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
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.14-7
Ideas Shape Attitudes Toward the Environment
DualismProgressCapitalismUtilitarianism
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.14-8
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
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.14-9
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
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.14-10
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) Particulates Lead (Pb)
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.14-11
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 188 air toxics at levels that prevent disease and requires industry to use the maximum achievable control technology to comply.
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.14-12
Principal Areas of Environmental Policy
Air (continued) Acid precipitation is caused
primarily by releases of two criteria pollutants: Sulfur dioxide Nitrogen oxides
Indoor air pollution Ozone-destroying chemicals
Chlorofluorocarbons Greenhouse gases
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.14-13
Greenhouse gases
Atmospheric gases that absorb energy radiated from the earth, preventing it from being released into space.
Principal Areas of Environmental PolicyWater
Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972, usually called the Clean Water Act
National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)
Runoff Agricultural Urban
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.14-14
Principal Areas of Environmental PolicyLand
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
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.14-15
RCRA Landfill Groundwater Monitoring Requirements
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.14-16
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
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.14-17
Typical Rotary Kiln Incinerator at a Superfund Site
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.14-18
Assessing the Nation’s Environmental Laws
Inconsistent philosophy Rigidity Bureaucratic sluggishness Complexity Adversarial approach Transmedia pollution
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.14-19
Concluding Observations Industrial processes damage the environment
and cause serious local and global deterioration. A first wave of environmental statutes in the
United States has reduced pollution and deterioration, primarily through rigid and expensive regulations.
Now that experience has been gained with these laws, their high costs, inflexibility, and adversarial nature are seen as shortcomings.
There are many suggestions for more cost-effective and flexible regulation.
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.14-20