The pernicious effects of air pollution were first documented long ago. As early as 61 C.E., Seneca, a Roman philosopher and noted essayist, wrote, "As soon as I had gotten out of the heavy air of Rome, and from the stink of the chimneys thereof, which being stirred, poured forth whatever pestilential vapors and soot they had enclosed in them, I felt an alteration to my disposition" (Miller and Miller, 1993). With technology being as simple as it was in Rome, however, there was not much that could be done about the problem.

Aerial view of Los Angeles obscured by smog. (Phototake)

Thirteen hundred years later, controls on the use of coal in London were passed, marking the recorded start of air pollution control. But such controls were not enough to prevent the buildup of pollutants as by-products of industrialization; air pollution was common to all industrialized...