Poor air quality is a problem that has been around for a long time.

The human race

has continued to pollute the air through the day to day activities. We have vastly
developed over the centuries from industrialization to the full embrace of
technology but as humanity has continued to advance, the environment has continued
to loose paying a price every time a car engine is ignited, an airplane takes off
and new factories set up. This paper aims to dissect the menace of poor air quality
critically analyzing the regulatory remedies. It shall first delve into the
historical perspective of the earliest known traces of air pollution looking at the
causes and what the effects might have been. Secondly, it shall discuss what the
international community through international Organizations has done so far with
regards to remedies and regulations adapted through various agreements Thirdly, it
will look at the modern day poor air quality situation faced by the globe .
Fourthly, a critical analysis of the legal recourse’s and regulations and their
effectiveness on neutralizing the current situations giving extensive examples of
cases on poor air quality. Lastly a conclusion with regard to the matter shall be
drawn.
Air quality has been defined as the ambient to which air is pollution free. Poor
air quality however is not a problem that started in recent centuries. A study
carried out by scientist on some microscopic bubbles found in the Ice in Green Land
proves greenhouse gases were being emitted 2000 years ago. A team of 15 scientists
led by Célia Sapart chartered the chemical signature of methane spanning 2,100
years back. The study based on the layers of a 1600 foot-long ice cores extracted
from the ice sheets in Green land that had accumulated over the last 115000 years.
They found that the Methane levels indeed increased according to the layers however
this was not caused by the increasing warmth but rather because of human activity.
This human activity was wide spread from the Roman Empire through domestication of
animals that excreted methane gas to the Han dynasty in china by expanding its rice
fields which harbored methane producing bacteria.
In 100 B.C through to 1600 A.D the emissions of Methane increased by 31 million
tons on an annual basis. In the Roman Empire at that time the emissions were very
high that they may have affected the entire atmosphere. In the 1300s the use of
early coal came into place. In London, in 1306 due to major soot and smoke
pollution, King Edward the first proclaimed a ban on the burning of sea coal in
London. This was after the king’s mother fell sick. The law was disregarded but
King Edward made sure that any offender faced very hefty fines. More Kings
including King Henry V and King Richard tried to eliminate the burning of coal
through introduction of various legislations.
The 18th and 19th centuries welcomed industrial revolution. The revolution saw a
lot of coal become used in factories as the main source of energy. This factories
were majorly located in cities thus the term “urban air pollution” was born.
However effective the coal its significance during industrialization brought some
negative effects with it too. In 1873, 268 deaths occurred due to a lot of
saturated fog that was present in London. Around this same time in the USA concerns
about the quality of air began to arise. In 1881, in the cities of Cincinnati and
Chicago municipal smoke abatement laws were enacted. The discovery of acid rain
was in the mid to late 1800s, this rain that affected plants, the fertility of the
soil was because of the discharge of nitrogen compounds into the atmosphere.
The 20th century saw more rise of concerns about air quality. The air pollution
heightened in the beginning of the 1900s mainly by motor pollution which began to
be manufactured in bulk mainly at the beginning of this century. In Glasgow
Scotland, there were smoke accumulations which caused the deaths of around 1000
persons. It was at this time that Dr. Des Voex coined the term smog. Awareness
about the poor air quality was starting to become realised. Further effects of air
pollution were being felt. In 1928 the Public Health Service of the USA had began
to report about the sunlight reduction from about 20% to 50% due to presence of
smog. A decade and one year later in 1939, the St. Louise city did experience a
week of extreme smoke air pollution . There was totally no visibility during
middays due to smog. This later led the city into limiting the use of low quality
and soft coal.
In the beginning of the 1940s more and more attention was being drawn towards this
issue, this was mainly after the smog incidents. One of this incidents happened in
Los Angeles there was a concentration of smog all over the city and many became
aware of the poor air quality in L.A and other cities. Perhaps one of the most
paralyzing smog incidents due to severe industrial pollution was in Donora,
Pennsylvania in 1948. In just over a week in a town of about 14,000 residents due
to air pollution half of the population was ailing from cardiovascular and
respiratory infections and about 20 were asphyxiated. Donora had zinc and Iron
smelters who affected the air pocket. The case in Donora was representing the harsh
consequences that had to be faced by many residents across many cities in the world
due to industrial revolution.
London was not new to air pollution. In 1952 the “Great London smog” occurred. This
was by far the smog episode that did claim a lot of lives. 4000 deaths were caused
by this episode. This led the parliament of London to come up with some
legislations to try and curb this menace. Four years after that episode in 1956 a
clean air Act was introduced which was in effect until 1964. This act had been
sponsored by Scotland’s department of health and England’s local government and the
ministry of housing. In 1968 another clean air Act was introduced. This was then
followed by the introduction of the control air pollution Act of 1970. In 1963
there was the effort to reduce air pollution in the USA. The congress then passed a
clean air legislation which has been strengthened through amendments in the recent
decades.
Poor air quality is a major problem facing today’s world that has continued to hit
the globe from East to West and North to South. Poor air quality has destroyed the
Ozone layer and as a consequence there continues to be wild fires, increased
drought periods as a result we have world hunger. Poor air quality is a growing
world problem caused by pollution. This air pollution does not only cause health
problems but also reduces economic growth, destroys major eco systems and is the
lead cause of climate change. What has the international community done in making
sure that this problem is solved? The regulations and measures taken up to safe
guard the globe? What have international NGO’s done to achieve quality air?
According to the World Health Organization 98% of countries in middle income and
low income countries with more 100 000 residents fail to meet the WHO air quality
guidelines. This guide lines were first published in 1987 and have been revised and
updated since then. According to WHO air pollution causes more than 2 million
premature deaths worldwide.
The United Nations convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution saw its
conclusion in 1979. It involved this protocol later coming into force in 1983 after
being ratified by several states. This convention by far has been extended by 8
protocols that have identified some specific measures to be taken up by the parties
to it which are 51 and they include; Oslo protocol of 1994 on emissions of Sulphur,
Protocol of Helsinki of 1985 on reduction of Sulphur emissions. Heavy metal
protocol of 1998, protocol on Nitrogen Oxide of 1988, protocol on persistent
Organic pollutants of 1998, protocol on volatile organic compounds of 1991, 1999
Gothenburg protocol to ground- level Ozone, Abate acidification and Eutrophication
and the protocol of 1984 on the evaluation of the long range transmission of air
pollutants in Europe (EMEP) and on the long term financing of cooperative programme
for monitoring.
The United Nations through the United Nations Framework Convention on climate
change (UNFCCC) has brought to light several agreements that aim to improve the
climate by making sure that the air quality has been improved in the last three
decades. They include the Kyoto protocol which was proposed in the mid-1990s
because the UNFCCC realized that there was need to put stronger provisions for the
reduction of emissions. In 1997 legally binding emission reduction targets through
this protocol was introduced for the developed countries. January 1st 2013 marked
the beginning of the second commitment period of the protocol that is expected to
run through to 2020. This part of the agreement is covered by the Doha amendment
and requires the 38 participating member states including all EU members who are
party to it to reduce at least up to 18% of the emission levels below 1990 levels.
On 13th July 2015 the council adapted a decision that gave the EU the powers to
ratify the second part of the Kyoto Protocol Agreement. The Paris agreement is also
one of immense contribution to better air quality. The conference took place as
from the 30th of November to 11th December 2015. The agreement then entered into
force in November 2016 after being ratified by at least 55 countries that accounted
for at least 55% of global greenhouse emissions. This agreement was based on the
five main elements, the first element was the long term goal to keep the global
average of climate increase to well below 2 degrees. The second element was
contributions by countries by providing comprehensive National climate action
plans. Ambition came in at 3rd and there was an agreement by governments to produce
more ambitious plans every half a decade. Transparency was the fourth and there was
an agreement that every state would report to its public and each other on how well
the implementation was taking place. The fifth was solidarity and the EU members
and other developed countries agreed to provide financial assistance to developing
countries to help them reduce emissions and help them tackle the issue of climate
change.
The EU launched its trading emissions scheme in 2005. This was to promote the
reduction of the emissions of greenhouse gases in an economical and cost effective
way. It restricted the amount of emissions produced by power producers, air
carriers and energy intensive industry. The EU further caps emissions through
allowances that can be given to individual companies or acquired by them. This caps
reduce over time to make sure that there is a significant reduction in emissions.
There was an economic crisis that hit the EU hard. Though the economy suffered
there was a significant gain because this period saw a reduction in emissions. The
demand for emission allowances was significantly lowered. As part of the 2030
Climate and energy frame work one of the targets that the EU hopes to achieve is
the reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions by 40% in comparison to the 1990s
emissions. Some of this proposals aim to foster the use of low carbon technologies
by encouraging innovation around this sector.
The proposal that sought to revise the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS)
involved some changes they included; updating all the benchmarks used to measure
the emissions performance to reflect the advances since 2008, a considerable number
of free allowances was to be set aside for new installations and that more rules
that were flexible enough to better align the amount of free allowances with
invention figures. This mainly is to help achieve a foreseen goal of 6.3 billion
worth of free allowances to companies for the period of 2021 to 2030. This frame
work further gave some proposals which emphasized on improved energy efficiency,
key indicators on energy prices and a new governance framework. Key issues were
debated on the policy frame work with regards to climate change. There was carbon
leakage and the importance of decarbonation.
Living in cities exposes most people to poor air quality and this is the reality in
most cities in Europe. Almost 55% to 85% of the world’s population live in urban
cities. A study that was carried out by the European Environment Agency (EEA)
showed that about 400 000 premature deaths occur in Europe annually and are caused
by fine particulate matter in the air. The EEA 2017 report was on “Air Quality” and
this was based on real data collected from over 2000 observing stations. The report
indicates that there are high concentrations of air pollution in Europe. There is
higher harm been caused by Nitrogen dioxide, ground level Ozone and Particulate
Matter (PM). The report significantly indicates that in 2014 PM alone was
responsible for about 428 000 premature deaths in 41 European countries. Further
impacts were felt on the soil quality, plants and there was a rise in the medical
costs and employee’s productivity had dropped.
The key findings of the report were mainly three. The first was that 7% of the EU
urban population was exposed to PM and about 82% were exposed to levels that
Exceeded WHO guidelines. The second finding was that about 9% of the EU urban
population was exposed to unsafe levels of Nitrogen Oxide that exceeded WHO
guidelines which caused an estimated 78 000 pre mature deaths in 2014. The third
one was that 30% of the EU urban population was exposed to ground level Ozone and
this had caused an approximated 14 400 premature deaths in 41 states in Europe.
This exposure to this toxic greenhouse gases has continued to have impact on the
health of the populations living in this European countries and Europe as a
continent. The impacts on health are majorly respiratory, cardio vascular and lung
cancer. The report further narrows down to the Years of Life Lost (YLL) to this
main pollutants.
The number of YLL attributed to PM are 4 574 100, those attributed to Nitrogen
Oxide are 827 500 and those attributed to ground level Ozone are 2 440 100. There
are other air pollutants that are also a cause of poor quality air that have been
recorded in Europe. This are toxic metals, Carbon Monoxide, Sulphur dioxide and
Benzene. They are no the main but are also part of the substances that make the
case for poor air quality in urban areas mainly though the presence if this gases
is not in extremely high percentages.
A cohort study carried out in Ontario Canada with the aim of establishing whether
air pollution enhanced three diseases namely Parkinson’s disease, Dementia and
Multiple sclerosis. This diseases are neuro degenerative and are very common.
Growing concerns whether exposure to air pollution caused by traffic contribute to
the neurodegenerative pathology thus the study was conducted. Results showed that
diesel exhaust and air pollutants induced oxidative stress to neuro inflammations
this thus leading to an increase in Parkinson’s disease. Those also living near
major highways are exposed to major air pollutants among them heavy toxic metals
and organic compounds thus affecting the health of this population negatively. This
effect been Dementia, those living near the high ways had higher cases of this
disease than those who did not live near major high ways.
According to the Lancet commission on pollution and health 9 million deaths were
recorded worldwide due to air pollution. This was 16% of the deaths recorded that
year. Out of all the deaths caused by pollution 92% of this deaths are in the
middle income and low income counties. They are mainly caused by toxic chemicals,
industrial emissions and vehicle exhausts. 1950 to date 15000 chemicals have been
synthesized and many of them have caused harm to human health and the environment
in more ways than one. Some chemicals like Polychlorinated biphenyl,
dichlorodiphenyltrichlorinated and asbestos. The latter has been banned in many
countries because it is highly toxic causing effects such as lung cancer,
asbestosis, pleural disorders and fibrotic lung disorder.
A study carried out by the Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) on how air
pollution contributes to lung diseases. The study stipulated that air pollution
exposure can cause damage to the respiratory tract. It can trigger asthma,
aggravate progression or development of chronic illnesses including cancer and
intensify a previously existing respiratory illness. This pollutants also harm lung
development and this later lead to health complications. There is a connection of
Asthma and the Ozone. Ozone accelerates Asthma when ambient levels fall under the
safe levels. Other diseases brought about by air pollution are the chronic
bronchitis, emphysema and ObstructivePulmonary Disease (COPD).
The business insider published an article of the 10 cities in the world with worst
air pollution and are 15 times dirtier than what is considered healthy. It is
important to note that air pollution in the world kills 3.3 million people and
projections have shown that this number is more than likely to double by 2050.
Lucknow is a city on India starts off the list of this cities having very unsafe
levels of PM. Ahmedabad in western India also has very high levels of air pollution
majorly due to major construction projects happening in the city. Iran’s
Khorramabad which is known for agriculture has the highest air pollution levels in
that country. Pakistan’s Rawalpindi has air pollution mainly from heavy use of
private vehicles. Peshawar is in Pakistan and also has massive air pollution due to
brick kiln emissions, vehicle emissions and industrial emissions. Rapid
urbanization, Industrial emissions and vehicle emissions puts Karachi as Pakistan’s
most air polluted city. Coal-Power plants in Raipur in India affects the quality of
air in that city. Gwalior’s bad air in India is also attribute to coal-powered
plants and cars. PM levels in India’s most populous eastern city Patna are
considered to be unhealthy. According to WHO Delhi has qualified to be very
unhealthy this is due to factory emissions and motor emissions.
A list of the most polluted countries in the world was recently published in an
article in the telegraph. This countries were listed with the concentration on
average of Particulate matter that they have. Pakistan with a 115.7 concentration,
Qatar 92.4, Afghanistan 86, Bangladesh 83.3, Egypt 73, UAE 64, Mongolia 61.8, and
India 60.6. Bahrain 56.1, Nepal 50, Ghana 49, Jordan 48, China 41.4, Senegal 40,
Turkey 39.1, Bulgaria 38.6, Mauritius 38.1, Peru 38, Serbia 35.8 and Iran at 34.2.
Almost every city has some level of air pollution. Air pollution can be controlled
and there are efforts happening in many parts of the globe to bring awareness about
air pollution and advocating for it to be curbed.
Projects like Greenpeace East Asia. This is one of the leading NGOs working to
reduce the sources of air pollution in china. China’s air pollution is caused
mainly by hazardous chemicals from the industrial emissions, vehicle emissions and
power plants fired by coal. The effects that have been felt and seen are health
from birth defects, heart diseases and cancer. In china 60% of its electricity
comes from coal and thus coal burning is the major cause of air pollution in China.
Greenpeace East Asia has continued to advocate for specific actions including more
strict air standards and introducing very effective policies that will help reduce
emissions. They have further proposed for the total disregarding of the use of
coal. They also have proposed that this policies be directed towards reducing the
number of vehicles on the roads. Improving urban planning by the government and
thus improving green spaces. They continue to propose for the restriction of the
construction of coal powered factories. They also proposed for the embracing of
clean energy and to the switching to the use of electric cars.

Healthy air campaign is one that was launched in the UK under the slogan ‘Cleaner
air for a healthier life’. The main purpose for the launch was to advocate for
action towards clean air in the UK. Every year it has been estimated that 29000
premature deaths are caused by air pollution in the UK and this is nearly 5% of the
annual deaths and there was and still is little awareness around air pollution this
provoked the starting of this campaign. Client earth in April 2015 through its
lawyers sued the UK government for failing to act on air pollution. The legal
battle had revolved around whether the UK had fulfilled its obligations to the EU
air quality directive that had come into force in 2010. This was due to several
cities in Britain failing to meet the EU standards on Nitrogen oxide levels since
the directive entered into force. A unanimous decision was made by a bench of five
judges who ruled that the secretary for environment was to draw up a plan to meet
the EU’s directive by the end of 2015.
In November 2016 client earth moved back to the courts suing the UK government over
neglecting to follow through with the ruling of the court and the court ruled in
the favor of client earth for a second time. The government did not appeal the
decision and worked out a new time table with client earth. Nearly a week ago on
the 18th of October 2017client earth wrote a letter to UK’s environment secretary
Michael Gove calling for new measure to be drawn with the aim of addressing the air
pollution crisis. If the government fails to comply with the demands in the letter
client earth has hinted that they are willing to go back to the courts to seek
justice. If this happens this will be the third time that the government will be
taken to the courts in the last half decade over its policy on air pollution. Many
countries control the air pollution in their jurisdiction’s through various
environmental laws. The major countries with pronouncements through legislations
are the United Kingdom, New Zealand, United States of America and China.
China’s air pollution policies go back to the 1980’s. This policies have been
initiated and implemented nationwide. In 1972 China was in attendance of the first
UN conference on Human environment through her representatives. The protection
leadership group was formed one year after and later on 1983 the regime of the day
made it clear that the protection of the environment was becoming part of the
state’s policy. The government went on a rigorous exercise of protecting the
environment and with a hefty investment China was able to convert more than 7.7
million hectares of bare land into forest. Pollution however was increasing and
this attracted many protests all over the country. The issue of pollution grew
bigger and as it grew so did the concerns thus the government was under pressure to
act. There was first the Green G.D.P project that was termed dead on arrival. The
government went further and tried to introduce National car free days, this
required the Citizens not to use cars on the given days but it too was met with
nothing but ignorance thus it wasn’t successful.
In 2013 due to the escalating problem of air pollution an Air Pollution Prevention
and control action plan was introduced with the hope of addressing the problem
within 5 years. The plan’s worth $277 billion. Two years later due to pressure
mounting on the government the parliament approved an improved environmental law.
This new law has 70 articles unlike the original law which had 47 articles. This
new brought about higher fines and penalties. This is to mean that if one who is
causing pollution does not make correction as required by authority they face a
hefty fine which is very high from the relevant authority. The law also gave more
insights on the issue of public interest litigation. Article 58 of the law
stipulates that only social organizations that satisfy two conditions may file a
law suit with the courts against any activity that causes ecological damage or
pollutes the environment or brings harm to the public interest. This two conditions
are:
(1) “They must be registered with a government civil affairs department at or
above the level of a city or the districts and
(2) The groups must have been engaged specifically in public service activities
in environmental protection for five consecutive years without any violation of any
laws”.

The new laws also under articles 53, 62 and 63 aim to increase transparency thus
violations by anyone are to be made public damaging their reputation even on the
international levels. Those who fail to abide to the new updated environmental laws
face even detention up to 15 days. In this law under article 57 there is protection
offered to any individual citizen or groups that blow the whistle on corporations
or individual businesses breaking the environmental law or a failure by an
environmental regulatory body to perform its mandated legal duties. This law
dictates that any report submitted on anyone or any institution must be kept
confidential. The law however comprehensive has been said to have four gaps by
critiques. The first of this gaps is that the power of this law is limited by other
legislations which are sector specific among them are legislations on forestry,
agriculture, grasslands and water laws. The second environmental governance
structure may fragment the enforcement of this new law. Thirdly, the law fails to
acknowledge that the Citizens have a basic right to be in an environment fit for
life thus creating a gap within the law. Lastly, conflicts of interest and lack
of capacity may rock the implementing and enforcing process for this law.
In New Zealand air pollution has been a menace and its policies around air
pollution go back to the 1970s. In 1972 the clean air act was passed by the
parliament of New Zealand with the aim of promoting clean air conservation and
diminution of its pollution thereof. This act first and foremost gave life to the
clean air council. This council was mandated by the act to perform some functions
which were the council would make recommendations to the minister on matters
relating to the control of air pollution. They would then advice on any regulations
that had been proposed by the Act. The council was given mandate to advise the
minister on how to execute the duties bestowed upon him by the Act. It was also
supposed to advise the authorities on the discharge of the duties entrusted to them
by the under the Act. Coordination of the activities of the local authorities with
those of the department of health and voluntary groups with regard to the control
of air pollution was also a responsibility charged to this council.
The act gave stipulations on how the air pollution would be controlled. It
stipulated the obligations of the occupier of a premise. It stated the duty of the
occupier to collect and maintain any air pollutant and also render any air
pollutant emitted from those premises harmless and inoffensive. This act the
received a few amendments and eventually a new act took over. In 1991 the Resource
Management Act was passed in New Zealand though it had been a very controversial
bill but it was brought based on the principal of environment protection.
The United Kingdom effective policy goes back to the 1900s. It was started off by
the clean air act of 1956. This was then followed by a lot of laws introduced in
the UK on environmental protection. More legislations on climate change and
pollution have been passed in the UK for the sole purpose of protecting the
environment. They include the environmental protection act of 1990, energy act of
2011, energy act of 2010, energy act of 2008, planning energy act of 2008 and
climate change act of the year 2008. International legislations also have been
adopted to help keep the air clean from the water frame work directive to the
European climate change programme and also the United Nations Environmental
programme. This are the various laws that are in effect in the UK.
In the United States the first clean air act was passed in 1970 but the major mile
stone came in 1990 on November 15th when the 1990 amendments were signed into law.
This amendments were mainly aiming to protect the health of the public by trying to
curb four major factors and this were urban air pollution, stratospheric Ozone
depletion, acid rain and toxic air pollution. Through these amendments there was
the establishment of National operating permits program thus making the law more
workable by strengthening enforcements ensuring better compliance for the Act was
made. Through this amendments significant change has been seen as a result. There
has been significant improvement on air quality in many US cities and town and the
threats to human health have been continuously toned down. Particulate pollution
has toned down with about 36%. Various areas that had unsafe levels of pollution
now have the recommended safe level standards. These act enabled the manufacturing
of cleaner vehicles and locomotives which have significantly led to decreasing of
pollution. This amendments had introduced clean air plans that were key in
improving on the pollution levels ton meet the required standards.
Toxic air pollution by industries and factories has reduced significantly due to
the embracing of cleaner and better technologies. The amendments had also faced out
most Ozone layer depleting substances this included halons and CFCs and then
promoted cost effective alternatives. This protection of the Ozone layer has
protected many from skin cancers caused by harmful sun rays. This amendments have
been praised for helping achieve large health benefits for the American people and
they are expected to improve as the programs continue to be effected. An EPA study
that was released in March of 2011 gave the projections that by 2020 this 1990
amendments would have helped avoid over 230,000 premature deaths and also helped
amass many health benefits to the population. The report also had estimated the
economic value of air quality improvements to reach $2trillion by 2020. A value
that was gained through the amendments of 1990 on Clean Air Act.
Canada also has been on the fore front when it comes to fighting air pollution.
Canada also has a legislation that is mainly through Canadas clean air act. The act
was mainly based on some factors whose aim was to achieve better clean air by
reducing air pollution levels. The main three factors were, first, the Act gave
the government more strength on taking the reduction of emissions by creating a
clean air part in the 1999 Canadian environment protection act. Secondly, It would
enhance the fuel efficiency by enhancing the government’s authority by amending the
Motor Vehicle Fuel Consumption standards Act. Lastly, it expanded authorities by
amending the Energy Efficiency Act thus allowing the government to set energy
efficiency standards and labelling requirements for a wider range of consumer and
commercial products. The act then committed to short, medium and long term
industrial air pollution targets.
The commitments were based on emissions from industry on a short term from 201-
2015, the medium term would go from 2020- 2025 and long term would be 2050. The act
also covered emissions from off-road vehicles, engines and on road vehicles.
Regulations were drawn to further reduce air pollutant emissions from motorcycles.
There were new regulations introduced to reduce air pollutant pollution from off
road recreational vehicles and from marine spark ignition engines. Amendments were
made to reduce air pollutant emissions from off-road diesel engines and
equipment’s. New regulations regulating emissions from off-road large spark
ignition engines were introduced by the Act. Indoor air was also covered by the
legislation