THE HISTORY OF AIR POLLUTION ANCIENT TO VICTORIAN TIMES.
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Transcript of THE HISTORY OF AIR POLLUTION ANCIENT TO VICTORIAN TIMES.
THE HISTORY OF AIR POLLUTION
ANCIENT TO VICTORIAN TIMES
SUMERIAN/BABYLONIANSUMERIAN/BABYLONIAN ATTITUDES TOWARDS SMOKEATTITUDES TOWARDS SMOKE
my mood and heart. As if during the night watch ……like excrement.…… my countenance like smoke.
A hymn to Inana for Išme-Dagan: c.2.5.4.
Don't cause the oven in a man's house to smoke… it will ruin the bread.
Proverbs: from Nibru: c.6.2.1
Temple of Inana
RELIGIOUS CONTEXTSRELIGIOUS CONTEXTS
Typically religions see a relation between cleanliness and closeless to God
Hence pollution and defilement often linked…
Mary Douglas: Purity and Danger - an analysis of concepts of pollution and taboo (1966)
VICTORY STELA VICTORY STELA OFOF KING KING PIANKHI
TEXT
“Ur was a stench to the nose for lack of air to breathe and threw itself on its belly…”
Seige of Hermopolis734 BC
ASTYMOMOI ASTYMOMOI
In Aristotle’s Athenian Politics - duties of the astymomoi who are responsible among other things for rubbish to be deposited beyond city walls
RECORDED FREQUENCYRECORDED FREQUENCY
0
0.05
0.1
936-1392
1392-1910174-936
China 1150BC Korea 174AD
Koryosa
Young-Sin Chun KMAByun, Kwan Shik (1939) Nu Gak...
AIR AND HEALTHAIR AND HEALTH
The Hippocratic Corpus had linked air and health
Vitruvius on Architecture sought the proper location of dwellings
Seneca and culinary odours
LEGISLATING LEGISLATING THE URBAN ENVIRONMENTTHE URBAN ENVIRONMENT
Sextus Julius Frontinus (Curator Aquarum) Governor of Britain ~AD75-78
Improved Rome's water improved the air (miasmatic theory) Rise of the professional administrator Moving industry (glass making) to suburbs
“Infamis aer…”“Gravioris caeli…”
Frontinus The Aqueducts of Rome
SMOKE LIKE WATERSMOKE LIKE WATER
Urban servitudes Roman nuisance law treated neighbourly
behaviour Smoke often treated like water… you
could no more let water drain across a house than smoke
BLACKENNED BUILDINGSBLACKENNED BUILDINGS
Your fathers' guilt you still must pay, Till, Roman, you restore each shrine, Each temple, mouldering in decay, And smoke-grimed statue, scarce divine
Odes and Carmen Saeculare Horace
MIDDLE EASTMIDDLE EAST
Hebrew Bava Batra and Ktubot describe laws:
“You can't take a wife out of the village to a city…”
Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaqi (“Rashi” 1040-1105) says this is “because the city is crowded and has no air.... In the village the air is nice"
Arab inheritance of classical learning meant an understanding of focus air pollution and health by 10th C.
At-TamAt-Tamĭĭmi (932-1000)mi (932-1000)
The black storm which is located in Hijaz and surroundings – is the smoky vapour which asphyxiates and kills
MEDIEVAL ENGLANDMEDIEVAL ENGLAND
Fuedal society at its height in 13th century
London an active capital Fast developing law under
Edward I
Edward IEdward I
AIR POLLUTION INCIDENTSAIR POLLUTION INCIDENTS
0
3
6
9
12In
cid
en
tsBIG CHANGE LATE 13TH C
Royal proclamations in 1285, 1288, 1306
Order of 23 July 1264 “purvey for the King in London… a boat load of sea-coal”
FUEL FOR FUEL FOR MAKING CEMENTMAKING CEMENT
Building at Westminster 1253 Henry III ordered oak brushwood
Henry IIIHenry III
PRESSURES TO CHANGE FUELPRESSURES TO CHANGE FUEL
0
10
20
30p
en
ce
Wood
Coal
POLLUTIONPOLLUTIONSEASONS c1300SEASONS c1300
0
1000
2000
3000
J F M A M J J A S O N D
Lime/tonne
Summer building works:extensive production of lime
0
2
4
6
J F M A M J J A S O N D
IncidentsAir pollution incidentsmostly in summer
In 1950s smoke a winterproblem - household heating
0
50
100
150
200
250
J F M A M J J A S O N D
Smoke1950
Extramurality
Punishments:Hanging
Decapitation
Grievous Ransoms
Apollo November 2004, p68
MEDIÆVAL SOURCESMEDIÆVAL SOURCES NO CHIMNEYS
SALT in LSALT in LÜNEBURGÜNEBURG
Braun and HogenbergCivitates Orbis Terrarum (1572) from woodcut Sebastian Munster (1550)
INDUSTRIAL INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION in ASIAPOLLUTION in ASIA
Use of coal relatively late, so sulphur emissions comparatively low.
Nevertheless early complaints of pollution, e.g 18th C breweries in Bangkok Hiroshige: Lime kilns
at Hashiba Ferry, Sumida RiverOne Hundred Famous Views of Edo
YORK 1381YORK 1381
Poll Tax establishes industrial locations
Annual wood use to calculate smoke concentrations
OUSE
FOSS
4 ug/m3
Dyers Bakers
Tanners Butchers
Metal workers
Chandlers Glaziers, Tilers
SOSO22 IN YORK ( IN YORK (μμg mg m-3-3))
Fuel imports Hearth tax
AIR POLLUTION IN 17AIR POLLUTION IN 17thth 18 18thth C C
0
3
6
9
12In
cid
en
ts
William LAUDWilliam LAUD
Losing you head over air pollutants
boring or brewing
Sir Kenelme DIGBY - Sir Kenelme DIGBY - errant mountebankerrant mountebank“Coal hath…
volatile salt very sharp…”dissapated to atoms in smoke
A Discourse on Sympathetic Powder 1658
Acid atoms
Alkaliatoms
Van Dyck
Margaret CAVENDISH -Margaret CAVENDISH - the ornament of Englandthe ornament of England
“Why that a coale should set a house on fireIs, Atomes sharpe are in that coale entireBeing strong armed with Points, do quite pierce through;Those flat dull Atoms, and their forms undo.”
Poems and Fancies 1653Her personal excess was legendary… men and women lined the streets of London to catch a glimpse of her.
Diarist, gardener and environmentalist
Fumifugium 1661 Many schemes to
improve London and its air
John EVELYNJohn EVELYN
Robert Walker1648
Ballad of Gresham CollegeBallad of Gresham College
22. To guesse by one everyone's meritt,
A Booke call'd Fumifugiam read.Its Author hath a publique spiritAnd doubtlesse too a subtile headHe must be more than John an OakeWho writes soe learnedly of smoake.
23. He shewes that 't is the seacoale smoake
That allways London doth Inviron,Which doth our Lungs and Spiritts choake,Our hanging spoyle, and rust our Iron.Lett none att Fumifuge be scoffingWho heard att Church our Sundaye's Coughing.
24. For melioration of the Ayre
Both for our Lungs and eke our noses,To plant the Fields he doth take careWith Cedar, Juniper and Roses,Which, turn'd to trees, 't is understood,Wee shall instead of coale burne wood.
DEATH by FOGDEATH by FOG
200
400
600
800
Deaths
0
2
4
6
GreatFogsFogs
Weekly observations
John Graunt, Natural and Political Observations Made Upon the Bills of Mortality, London: 1662
The winter of 1679 Deaths very high
after weeks of fog Especially from tisick
and among elderly
RICHRICH
RAINWATER AND RAINWATER AND PUBLIC HEALTH PUBLIC HEALTH
Robert Angus Smith the first Alkali Inspector former student of Liebig network of rain sampling sites across the UK
(1869/70)
““The purpose of rain is primarilyThe purpose of rain is primarily to purify the air and not to purify the air and not
to fertilize the soil”to fertilize the soil”
URBAN POLLUTIONURBAN POLLUTION
R.A.Smith placed tin cans on fire-stations in London – used term “acid rain”
WHY HISTORY?WHY HISTORY?
Film companies Art history –
labelling paintings
COLONIAL AMBITIONSCOLONIAL AMBITIONS
Pigeon-post linking Auckland and Great Barrier Island choose to emphasise urban-industrial not rural aspirations.
Victorians associated smoke and wealth.
JCW Wright 1897
NZ Public Works Dept
AUCKLANDAUCKLAND Auckland, isthmus with sea breezes Shallow harbours - emissions from mudflats gave
odour problems or fume attacks 1840's problems from putrefying waste in the Port of
Auckland PJ Hogan 1852 Auckland No 2
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Smok
e (m
in/h
r)CALCUTTACALCUTTA - problems from the 18- problems from the 18thth C C
Victorian experts Grover and Nicholson went and pushed for stringent smoke inspection
Some measure of success smoke observation are not always
reliable
NICHOLSONVISIT