Feed on
Posts
Comments

Via Bradley and Fullmer, here is a chart of “Settleable Dust” in Pittsburgh, PA from 1925-1965:

Sorry the quality is not better, it is from a bad scan on a bad scanner. I suppose the canned response to this is that the EPA encouraged global trade in steel from 1925-1965 and that all of the dust from steel production is now falling on some poor Chinese city. Kudos to readers who can report on the veracity of that particular claim.  Elsewhere in his work Goklany reports that 4 of the 5 major indoor air pollutants (the things that are still in the top 10 causes of death in poor countries) declined by 80% between 1940 and 1970. The 5th, nitrogen oxide, fell by 60% from 1940 to 2000.

2 Responses to “The EPA Saves Pittsburgh”

  1. I went back and read the recent EPA and clean air posts. It is something of a general rule that government action comes after a change in sentiment. We learn in school about reforms from above such as the Interstate Commerce Act or the Civil Rights Act, but the truth is more complicated.

    In the first case, many such “reforms” only cartelized industries that sought government protection from innovation.

    In the second case, Major League Baseball – perhaps the most public of private enterprises – was desegrated ahead of Brown v. Board.

    In this light, it may be that the EPA represents a cartelization as apparently greater improvements came before it was created than afterward. Innovation has been slowed. The next change will have to come from outside, as always. The growth markets in home water filters is certainly one indication. In addition to “air conditioning” (cooling) you can buy a broad range of in-home air filters and purifiers.

  2. Pat says:

    I’m just a bit curious about the 1,000’s of people dying from “fugitive dust” and PM-10″ that the EPA is regulating?

    You folks may wish to read up on Communism and methods to bring it into the USA.
    Faux environmental issues would be used to bring the economic engine to a halt. On a similar note, I just read about the former Marine Brandon Raub who was locked up in a psych ward to send a message to other dissenters (shut down free speech).
    The Communists have a whole playbook of tactics to use against you.

Leave a Reply to Michael E. Marotta