The Problem of Air Pollution During the Industrial Revolution: A Reconsideration of the Enactment of the Smoke Nuisance Abatement Act of 1821

The Industrial Revolution in Britain led to widespread pollution in the form of factory smoke, and raised the issue of social relief. Scholars have argued that the Smoke Nuisance Abatement Act of 1821 resulted from the efforts of just one public-spirited politician. In this paper, however, through examining parliamentary debates on this issue, we analyze how politicians, landlords, and industrialists viewed the damages caused by air pollution, how they developed a framework for redress, and how they interwove their interests into the act. Landowners, and even the manufacturers who were responsible, recognized that air pollution caused damage to property. For this reason, the act was promoted by landowners and even some industrial capitalists, although they are normally regarded as opponents of smoke regulation. As smoke prevention techniques of the time might be a source of profit for manufacturers, the act of 1821 did not conflict with their business principles. The owners of private property were merely seeking redress for damages that they had suffered. It was not until 1840s that more interventionist legislation aimed at helping urban labourers was contemplated.