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Air pollution from such stationary sources as factories, furnaces, incinerators, and power stations can be reduced in several ways. For example, a plant can install equipment designed to limit the amount of pollutants given off. It can change to a method of manufacture or of burning fuel that causes less air pollution. Or the plant can switch to a cleaner fuel. In some cases, plants must use a combination of these steps to reduce air pollution. Controlling the pollution emitted by cars and trucks involves changing the way engines operate, changing the ingredients in fuel, and adding pollution control devices to the vehicle. Manufacturers and refiners are working in all of these areas to find good ways of controlling pollution. In addition, research is underway to develop alternative engines that are driven by electricity, methanol, natural gas, steam, or other energy sources that create less air pollution. Increasingly, national and local governments are passing laws and setting requirements designed to control pollution. They issue information on the effects of air pollutants and the techniques available for controlling them. They set goals called air quality standards for achieving clean air. They then must enforce control measures to meet the goals. Governments may act directly against polluters if they fail to obey the regulations. The control measures include emission standards, which restrict the amount of pollution from factories and other sources of pollution. Governments also set emission standards for motor vehicles. In many countries, to meet these emission standards, new cars must be equipped with control devices called catalytic converters. International agreements can also
help to reduce air pollution. The 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances
That Deplete the Ozone Layer was ratified by more than 150 countries.
As a result of the protocol, most industrialized countries had stopped
producing and importing CFC's by 1996. Many developing countries
aimed to freeze CFC consumption in 1999 and to phase it out completely
by 2010. |
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