-
500
Ancient Civilization to 500 BC
Cloaca Maxima (big sewer) is built in Rome by Etruscan dynasty of Tarquins. As Rome grows, a networks of cloacae (sewers) and aquaducts are built. -
570
Ancient Civilization to 570 AD
They don't have air and water pollution because they didn't know what pollution was. -
May 7, 1388
The Middle Ages
Parliament passes an act forbidding the throwing of filth and garbage into ditches, rivers and waters. City of Cambridge also passes the first urban sanitary laws in England -
May 7, 1560
Middle Ages
Rapid industrialization in England leads to heavy deforestation and increasing substitution of coal for wood. -
Enlightenment Era
Philadelphia committee led by Benjamin Franklin attempts to regulate waste disposal and water pollution. -
Enlightenment Era
Beginnings of first modern municipal sewers in London, but water supply is still frequently contaminated -
Enlightenment Era
Smoke in Pittsburgh -- Pittsburgh official Presley Neville wrote "the general dissatisfaction which prevails and the frequent complaints which are exhibited, in consequence of the Coal Smoke from many buildings in the Borough, particularly from smithies and blacksmith shops..." The smoke affected the "comfort, health and... peace and harmony" of the new city. -
1/6
House of Commons Factory Commission -
2/6
Report of the Board of Health (focus: Cholera Outbreak) -
3/6
The Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britian. -
4/6
Royal Commission on Employment of Children in the Mines -
5/6
American Public Health Association -
6/6
British Public Health Act -
Progressive Era
Europe's last great cholera outbreak -
Progressive Era
US Congress passes the Burton Act, making diversion of water for power supplies subordinate to preservation of Niagara falls. -
Progressive Era
US Bureau of Labor issues a list of industrial poisons. -
Roaring Twenties
PHS (Public Health Services) checks air pollution in cities in the eastern part of the US including New York where reports show that sunlight was being cut by 20 to 50 percent. -
Roaring Twenties
A natural gas leak from oilfields near a school kill at least 295 students in New London, Texas. Because of this, regulations requiring natural gas suppliers to add odorants are adopted. -
WWII and The Fifties
The USA drops the first atomic bombs on the Japan -
WWII and The Fifties
The USA drops the first atomic bombs on the Japan -
WWII and The Fifties
Federal Water Pollution Control Act, also known as the clean water act was put into place -
Period: to
Air & Water Timeline
-
WWII and The Fifties
Congress passes Air Pollution Control Act which eventually turns into the clean air act. -
The 70's
Clean Air Act is passed -
The 70's
Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act to be administered by EPA. -
The 70's
Congress passed Hazardous Waste Transportation Act -
The 80's
Plastic Pollution Research and Control Act passes US Congress, forbidding ocean dumping of plastic materials. -
The 80's
International treaty bans all ocean dumping of wastes. -
The 90's
United Nations report on climate change warns that global temperature rise might be as much as 2 degrees F in 35 years, recommends reducing CO2 emissions worldwide. -
The 90's
UN Antarctica treaty prohibits mining, limits pollution and protects animal species -
The 21st Century
One of the most serious US environmental disasters east of the Mississippi River (until 2008 and the TVA ash disaster). -
The 21st Century
Tennessee -- Over a billion gallons of coal fly ash sludge spills out of a holding dam near Kinsport, TN -
Roaring Twenties
National Coast Anti Pollution League is formed to stop oil drumming
