ABSTRACT
The French law concerning polluting industries, passed in the early part of the century, defined whose responsibility it was to manage the problem. This chapter covers the period which separates the first French law concerning the pollution (1810) from the next one (1917), which was voted in a rather different spirit. It analyses the way the different types of actors behaved throughout the proceedings, evaluating how far their view was swayed by their position in the decision-making process. The chapter examines the manner in which the city-dwellers took the law progressively away from its originally intended path; the manner in which the prefects were confronted both with often insoluble contradictions and with private economic interests which sometimes imposed their power. It finally offers an assessment of the willingness of the authorities to tackle industrial pollution and the effects of their actions, one which somewhat differs from that which has until now been assumed to have been the case.
