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Article: Air Pollution
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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AIR POLLUTION
AIR POLLUTION
became a matter of concern in the United States in the nineteenth century, when population growth and industrialization increased the number of wood and coal furnaces, which generated enough smoke to overwhelm natural air-filtering processes and threaten human health. Coal-burning facilities in industrial centers like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and smelter towns like Butte, Montana, spewed tons of smoke, soot, ash, and gases into the atmosphere. Boosters often applauded the smoke as a sign of prosperity. But by the late nineteenth century the hazards of smoke were better understood. Airborne pollutants became especially dangerous when a so-called thermal ...