Air Pollution Policy Proposal

This report proposes a new policy to address the rising issue of air pollution in the UK. It begins by outlining the context of the problem, highlighting the significant health and environmental consequences of air pollution, including increased mortality rates and damage to biodiversity. The report then reviews existing UK legislation and policies, noting their limitations in addressing the evolving nature of air pollution sources. The core of the report presents a detailed proposal for an air pollution permitting system. This system categorizes pollution sources as 'minor' (Source A) and 'major' (Source B), outlining different permitting requirements and enforcement actions for each. The proposal specifies the types of permits required, including permits to prevent significant deterioration, permits to meet national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants, and permits for expanding or modifying emission facilities. The report details the intended impact of the policy, targeting stationary sources of air contaminants and aiming to balance environmental protection with operational flexibility for industries. It also outlines the parties targeted by the policy (industries, regulatory authorities, and the environmental department) and proposes specific actions and penalties for non-compliance, including fines and license suspensions. Finally, the report concludes by summarizing the proposed policy and its significance in mitigating the serious environmental challenge of air pollution in the UK.

Policy Proposal
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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
The context of the issue..............................................................................................................................2
Environmental issue in UK: Rise in the air pollution............................................................................2
The current legislation and policies for air pollution in UK..................................................................3
The proposed policy: Air pollution permitting system.................................................................................5
The general actions and the principles of the policy...........................................................................5
The sources that are covered in this policy:........................................................................................5
The impact that the policy intends to put...........................................................................................7
The parties which the policy targets....................................................................................................8
The proposed actions in case of non-compliance with the actions and the principles of the policy...8
The instruments used and the budget of the policy....................................................................................9
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................10
References.................................................................................................................................................11
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Introduction
Air pollution is a common issue in UK and to deal with this issue, the country has established
many policy measures, it has enacted the relevant laws and legislations too so that the issue gets
resolved. Those policy initiatives have been successful to a great extent, but still there is a long
way to go. Also, the causes of air pollution have also changed with time. Earlier the pollution
many be caused by just the factories, but now, the vehicles and the fuels used in them also
contributes to air pollution in UK to a large extent. So, accordingly, the policy must be revised or
new ones should be introduced so that the new challenges can be dealt with. In regard to this, the
current report aims to develop a relevant proposal for a policy to tackle the issue of air pollution
in UK. The policy will give detail on the principles, standards of establishment and the
instruments that will be used to monitor the policy initiatives. In addition to this, the policy will
also develop a strategy for the implementation of the action.
The context of the issue
Environmental issue in UK: Rise in the air pollution
When the level of the pollutants in the air rises, it has a direct impact on the lives of the people of
that country. It is very important to keep the level of pollution under check because if it gets built
up, it leads to deterioration of the health as well as the generation of the anti-social behavior in
people (Hoek, 2001. Therefore, the issue of the air pollution is quite serious and it needs to be
tacked at every step since the formation of the pollution till its abatement. The sources of
pollution are many and all need to be regulated so that the air pollution can be reduced. It is very
difficult to address all the sources of pollution in one single policy. So, the policy will be majorly
based on the issue of pollution that is created by the industries and the factories that are involved
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in the manufacturing and the production processes. The research and the findings have shown
that air pollution directly affects the health of the people because they start suffering from
various hearts and the lung diseases (Beverland, 2014). In a report published regarding the deaths
of people due to air pollution, it had been mentioned that there are almost 3000 people who die
due to the infection that they develop due to the high pollution level j the air of UK ( Raaschou-
Nielsen, 2013). Also, when people get exposed to this pollution for a long time, their expectancy
of the life gets reduced. In addition to the adverse impact on the health of the people, the
damage is also caused to the bio diversity in the country. When the harmful pollutants are
emitted in the air, the concentration of the pollutants increase and the environment gets
contaminated. The pollution is not caused by just one or two type of pollutants; there are many
different pollutants that cause the air pollution. One among them is the fine particulate matter
that causes a threat to the life of people and it also causes the pre mature deaths. Then, there are
harmful cases present in the air that includes the nitrogen oxides and the suplhur dioxide. The
lead pollution which is caused by the presence of lead in the air affects the neurological system
in the body of the people and thus many behavioral problems tend to happen. Also, the lead
affects the level of IQ in small children (Shah, 2013). The vehicles release carbon monoxide
which is again a very harmful pollutant that causes the heart and respiratory disease among the
people. Many cases have been reported in the past years that have shown the people getting
admitted in hospitals due to the heart attacks and the strokes. The cases of asthma patients have
also been increased in the past few years (Kanemoto, 2014). These are all the consequences of
the rise in the pollution level of the air. Thus, UK is facing a very serious environment issue
related to the air pollution.
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The current legislation and policies for air pollution in UK
UK had enacted the Environment Act in 1995, according to which the local authorities of the
country have to review the quality of air in particular areas as allotted to them and they have to
create an assessment report (Scotford, 2013). If the authorities find that the criteria and
acceptable standards of pollution are not met, then they have to make efforts to clean the air in
that area. The reports of the assessment have to be published in public to spread awareness
among the public. This report is helpful as the people get to know the causes of pollution and
they take care of the sources of pollution. The second policy in this area that is formulated and
implemented in the country is the consultation on the quality management of the local air in UK.
This policy aims to reduce the level of PM 2.5 emissions (Park, 2013). The country also follows
the international standards and the European standards of the quality of air (Kim, 2013). The
authorities responsible for maintain the quality of air in the country made a strategy to clean the
national air and they aimed to reduce the pollution caused by the transportation activities and the
industrial manufacturing. This strategy was implemented and the level of pollution was reduced
in the country. The authorities and the government also go for the daily forecasts of the pollution
in the air and they publish the report in the media so that the experts can give their advice to the
people of the country on how they can save themselves from the harmful effects of this pollution
and they can show the way to the people for taking their care.
Thus, the legislations and polices are effective but they are not very detailed and well-
established. The proposed policy to tackle this issue will now be discussed in the next section.
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The proposed policy: Air pollution permitting system
The general actions and the principles of the policy
The policy proposes to give permits to the various sources of the air pollution in which the limits
will be set on the quantity of the contaminants that can be released in the air by those sources and
the policy will specify the requirements for the operation and construction of the source of the air
contaminants that are regulated.
The sources that are covered in this policy:
1. Minor sources- There are some of the emitting facilities that are smaller in terms of their
complications, size and level of pollution created. For example, the industrial operations
on small scale, the gas stations and the dry cleaners. These sources will be referred as
“Source A” as per this policy. These sources will be given the “permit to install and
operate” under this policy. This permit will be given to such sources for 10 years or less
depending upon their level of expansion and operation. If the size of such sources is
observed by the regulatory authorities to increase, then the permit will be withdrawn. In
the case of these minor sources, the permitting requirements are small.
2. Major sources- there are some of the emitting facilities that are larger in terms of their
complications, size and level of pollution created. For example, refineries, forging
operations, large scale industrial operations etc. These sources will be referred as “Source
B” as per this policy. The type of permit extended to such sources will depend on the
operational level of these facilities at the time of their installation and modification. The
permit to install the expanded version and the modified version will not be given easily
and at one go. There will be many requirements to be fulfilled before going ahead for
expansion in case of these sources. The following permits are required to be obtained for
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such sources and for that they will have to fulfill all the necessary requirements to abate
the level of air pollution that is likely to get increased due to these major sources:
a. The permit to prevent the significant deterioration: This permit will be issued in
those areas where the level of pollution is already high and the major source is also
located here. This will be given when the major source shows a plan and strategy
by which they will prevent further deterioration of the environment. If the plan is
worth some use, then the permit will be granted. It is mandatory for these sources
to submit a plan for approval for getting this permit and the authorities will be
responsible to make sure that the plan gets implemented after the extension of
permit to these sources.
b. The permit to meet the national emission standards in case of hazardous air
pollutants: These permits are issued to the major sources by specifying the
technology based standards for the air pollutants that are hazardous in nature.
These standards will be mentioned in the permit. If the major sources have the
appropriate technology installed that will help it in controlling the emission, then
the permit will be granted to these sources.
c. The permit to expand and modify the emission facilities- These are the most
difficult permits to obtain. This is because; these will be given if the major sources
take steps to abate the level of pollution in the air. They will not only have to abate
the pollution that they will create, but they will also have to abate the existing air
pollutants before starting the operations. Also, this permit will be granted only
when they the sources will abate the pollution in the same proportion as their
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activities. They will have to make sure that the environment remains in the same
condition as it was before the start of the activities of these sources.
Regardless of the type of permit, the requirements for obtaining these permits as a final action
will be issued by the director of the Environment Authority agency and after his guidelines and
approval only, the permits will become enforceable and the activities can be started. The sources
have to submit various documents to the agency that will depend on the type of permit that they
are asking for and the level of pollution that is likely to get generated from the activities thereon.
The main documents have been described above like the plan, the strategy for abatement etc. The
rest of the documents will depend on the situation and accordingly, the Director will ask for the
same.
The impact that the policy intends to put
There are many stationary sources of the contaminants in the air. These permits intend to target
these sources that are stationary. The permits are issued to specify the limits on the quantity of
the air contaminants that are emitted in the air. The policy intends to target the regulation of the
sources of air contaminants that are being constructed and operated in the country. Since the
permits specify the testing of the emissions and the monitoring of the industrial activities, so a
record is kept which can be reported whenever required. Also, many sources are intended to be
tackled at the same time. This shows that this policy intends to evaluate and demonstrate a
compliance with the limits on the emissions that are specified in the particular permits.
The permitting options vary as per the source of the pollution and as per the existing quality of
the air. So, the intention is not to disturb the practices of the industries and factories, but to
regulate their emissions. Thus, this policy also intends to give an operational flexibility that is
required by the source of the generation of pollution. For example, if the industry requires
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producing more and in that process, it has to generate pollution, then it will have the flexibility to
do that if the existing quality of air in that region is already good and three is no threat to the
lives of people living there.
In other words, the intention of this policy is to introduce the permitting programs depending on
the type of facility and on the type of the source of pollution. Also, the policy does not intend to
put strict regulations or measure on the activities of the country, because there is some
exemptions also which it offers that varies from some industries that are not subject to this
regulation to the ‘permit-by-rule’ exemptions.
The parties which the policy targets
The parties that are targeted by this policy are:
1. The industries: Mainly, the major sources of pollution and the “Source B” sources are
included in the industries that are involved in the manufacturing activities and they are
likely to create more pollutants than the others. So, to monitor and control these sources,
this policy has been formulated.
2. The regulatory authorities: These are responsible for maintaining the quality of air so
they have to be targeted by this policy. Also, the directions and the documents will have
to be checked by these authorities, so, they are targeted.
3. The department responsible for maintaining the quality of environment of UK: This
policy will target this department too because they measure the existing level of pollution
and accordingly, the pollutants can be controlled and monitored.
The proposed actions in case of non-compliance with the actions and the principles
of the policy
The actions will be taken in the following cases:
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 If “source A” continues to use the “permit to install and operate” for more than 10 years,
without renewal- Fine up to 25% of the profits earned in last five years, and suspension
of the operational license for three consecutive years.
 If “source A” does not inform about the increase in the size of such sources to the
regulatory authorities- Fine up to 30% of the profits earned in last five years, and
suspension of the operational license for three consecutive years.
 If “source B” fails to submit the plan for approval for getting ‘The permit to prevent the
significant deterioration’- No permission to operate or submit any plan for next three
years.
 If the major sources do not have the appropriate technology installed that will help it in
controlling the emission- Fine up to 25% of the profits earned in last five years, and
imprisonment of the owner up to 2 years.
 If the requirements for ‘The permit to expand and modify the emission facilities’ are not
fulfilled- Fine up to 25% of the profits earned in last five years, and imprisonment of the
owner up to 2 years.
The instruments used and the budget of the policy
The instruments that the policy has proposed are permits and the fines. This policy aims to take
care of the fact that the sources of pollution are complying with the permitted ceilings of the
pollution and they are generating pollution up to the level which is specified by the environment
department. The harmful particles and the small solid and liquid pieces are mainly covered by
the policy because they cause harm to the humans and to the bio diversity the most. For
controlling this, the permits are used by this policy and if the industries and the sources do not
comply with the permit requirements, then they will be imposed a fine. The fines mainly include
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the monetary payments and the suspension of the license to operate. This will help in ensuring
that the regulations and the requirements are met and the pollution gets controlled in a safe and
timely manner.
Conclusion
The environmental issue of the air pollution in the country UK is big and problematic. There are
a lot of things that are getting affected by this pollution including the health of the people and the
deterioration of the bio diversity. The policy that has been proposed in the above sections has
mainly focused on the system of issuing the permits to such industries and the imposing of fine
and suspension of license if the requirements for the permits are not met. The main parties that
this policy target are the industries and other sources of pollution, the regulatory authorities and
the environmental department of the country.
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References
Beverland, I.J., Carder, M., Cohen, G.R., Heal, M.R. and Agius, R.M., 2014. Associations
between short/medium-term variations in black smoke air pollution and mortality in the Glasgow
conurbation, UK. Environment international, 62, pp.126-132.
Hoek, G., Brunekreef, B., Fischer, P. and van Wijnen, J., 2001. The association between air
pollution and heart failure, arrhythmia, embolism, thrombosis, and other cardiovascular causes of
death in a time series study. Epidemiology, 12(3), pp.355-357.
Kanemoto, K., Moran, D., Lenzen, M. and Geschke, A., 2014. International trade undermines
national emission reduction targets: New evidence from air pollution. Global Environmental
Change, 24, pp.52-59.
Kim, K.H., Jahan, S.A. and Kabir, E., 2013. A review on human health perspective of air
pollution with respect to allergies and asthma. Environment international, 59, pp.41-52.
Park, Y.K., Kim, W. and Jo, Y.M., 2013. Release of Harmful Air Pollutants from Open Burning
of Domestic Municipal Solid Wastes in a Metropolitan Area of Korea. Aerosol Air Qual.
Res, 13, pp.1365-1372.
Raaschou-Nielsen, O., Andersen, Z.J., Beelen, R., Samoli, E., Stafoggia, M., Weinmayr, G.,
Hoffmann, B., Fischer, P., Nieuwenhuijsen, M.J., Brunekreef, B. and Xun, W.W., 2013. Air
pollution and lung cancer incidence in 17 European cohorts: prospective analyses from the
European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE). The lancet oncology, 14(9),
pp.813-822.
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