Air Quality and Source Emissions

Community air quality criteria are currently of considerable interest in air pollution control. The use of air quality criteria as a guide for community action and especially for long-term community planning, is presented. In the earliest approaches to air pollution control, the damage or nuisance caused by pollution was the basis for action for abatement. Action could be taken only after proof of damage or nuisance. Since this approach was not acceptable, the emphasis shifted from abatement to prevention of excessive pollution, with attention directed to the source and the efficiency of control systems. The performance to be obtained from a control system was a matter of negotiation between the community and those responsible for the source. Certain efficiencies usually obtainable with well known types of processing equipment or control devices became accepted as good practice, and emission standards based on these practices were incorporated in regulations.