ABSTRACT
There has been a long history of air pollution control (APC) in the UK. However, the starting point for any discussion of the law on air pollution really has to start with the alkali industry, which began in the late 19th century. In St Helens Co v Tipping (1865) 11 HL Cas 642, the limitations of the common law as a remedy for industrial pollution were highlighted and, instead, statutory controls were placed on the alkali industry through the Alkali Act 1874, which introduced the concept of best practical means (BPM).1 The legislation was consolidated in the 1906 Alkali Works Regulation Act. The Alkali Act 1863 set up the Alkali Inspectorate, later to become Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Pollution and now amalgamated into the Environment Agency (EA).2 In 1926, the Public Health (Smoke Abatement) Act was passed, but this did not cover domestic smoke. In December 1952, London suffered from the ‘London Smog’, which led to 12,000 deaths and Clean Air Act 1956, which controlled domestic smoke for the first time. However, it was not until the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Control of Pollution Act 1974 that any coherent regulatory structure was set up. In 1993, the Clean Air Act consolidated the previous legislation in relation to clean air. But, whilst many of the air pollution problems of the past, such as dark smoke, have been controlled, new problems have emerged such as the destruction of the ozone layer, acid rain and global warming.
