Introduction

Originally published in 1980, this book takes as case studies various policies arising from the Control of Pollution Act 1974 and traces their implementation and impact. The information about disposal of toxic waste on land, bathing water quality, noise abatement zones and industrial air pollution offers fruitful areas of investigation, highlighting different aspects of environmental pollution policy and its wider implications as well as illustrating vital components of the implication process, including enforcement and discretion. Many of these issues are as pertinent now as when the book was first published. Drawing on this evidence to establish some of the features central to public policy generally, the book will be of use to historians of public and environmental policy and those teaching and researching it.