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Air pollution battle will be prolonged delegates to the American Public Health Association convention are told on this day in 1960. Before WWII, air pollution had be regarded as a local problem for urban communities, but afterwards serious pollution problems were recognized and research was started, according to John Ludwig of the Cincinnati Sanitary Engineering center.

We’re losing the fight on air pollution US Secretary of Health Education and Welfare John Gardner tells a group of scientists meeting on air pollution issues in Washington D.C. on this day in 1966. Without quick action, people in the future might have to live indoors “like moles,” using gas masks or putting domes over cities, he says.

Acid rain degradation is apparent in 40 percent of Adirondack mountain streams, according to a New York Fish and Wildlife division study released this day in 1981.

Huge air pollution fine is imposed on Virginia-based Dominion Power company for violations of the Clean Air Act on this day in 2003. The fine was part of an overall EPA enforcement action against coal fired power plants for violating air pollution laws.

Air pollution lawsuit Fifteen states file a federal lawsuit against four top automakers on this day in 1970, alleging that they engaged in a conspiracy to evade lawful pollution controls.

Smog season begins for major cities. Smog episodes from coal smoke were typical in London for centuries, as this 1900 painting of Parliament by Claude Monet shows. But as London and other cities grew, especially heavy smogs were felt in 1952, 1953, 1962 and 1966, killing thousands. The severity of the incidents depended in part on variations in weather conditions, particularly thermal inversions that contain pollutants in enclosed regions. Other sources of smog proved even more dangerous over the years, such as air pollution from autos and petrochemicals.

Air pollution from trees?
On this day in 1966, botanist Frits W. Went, an expert on the effects of air pollution, spoke at a bio-meteorological conference at Rutgers University to point out that turpines and esters from pine forests created a “blue haze.” The emissions could be considered pollution, Went said, in an apparent attempt at humor. Fifteen years later, presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, picking up on the theme, said “Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do.” But where Prof. Went was illustrating a point about biological competition and tree chemistry, Reagan misinterpreted the information as referring to overall pollution, and opened himself up to heavy political criticism. The NASA Earth Observatory has an article on the complex chemical interactions between automotive pollution and forest chemistry.  See: “Killer Trees? Not Exactly,” Sept. 1, 2013.

Air pollution bill reported out of US Senate public works committee this day in 1963, formally beginning the long and once-bipartisan process of cleaning up auto and factory fumes in the air.

St. Louis Smog Episode A winter temperature inversion trapped emissions from home and factory coal fires in St. Louis on this day in 1939. Like many other smog episodes, lamps are needed at mid-day because the smog is so thick that sunlight doesn’t penetrate. Investigations and editorials about the smog episode win the St. Louis Post Dispatch a Pulitzer Prize in 1941.

Clean Air Act passed unanimously by U.S. Senate on this day in 1970. The bill was supposed to reduce air pollution from automobiles by 90 percent within five years.