IMPROVING AIR QUALITY: WHAT IS BEING DONE?

The federal clean Air aAct, passed in 1970 and amended in 1977, signified a major change in our consciousness of the importance of air quality. It established strict air-quality standards based primarily on health rather than economic considerations. The clean Air Act empowered the Environmental protection Agency (EPA) to set limits on several major air pollutants, including sulfur oxides and Nitrogen oxides, and it mandated reductions of automobile and factory emissions. By the time it came up for renewal by congress in December 1981, the act had caused dramatic improvement in air quality throughout the united state s. But in a time of economic recession, many manufacturers were pressuring the governments to relax the costly regulations.

Battle lines were drawn: industrialists claimed that the price of complying with the clean Air Act (especially the strict limits on automobile emissions) was to high, and environmentalists contended that that increased costs were balanced by a reduction in pollution related illnesses and death. At the time of this writing, some 86% of the public favor a strong pollution control law; efforts to weaken the measure have so far been defeated .