Poor air quality is mainly attributable to emissions of gaseous pollutants; smokes and other particulates are the greatest cause of poor air quality. Effects can be suffered at all scales of geographic resolution, and both international, European and UK regulation has been developed to reflect this. Company management need to understand the potential damage caused to the environment due to all environmental releases, including emissions to atmosphere.

This section will deal with the UK legislative controls on emissions to atmosphere in order for you to apply it directly to your company's situation. Due to the fact that it is beyond the scope of this tutorial, it would be useful and interesting for you to read around the subject especially on the international dimension such as the Montreal Protocol. (Which deals with the global problem of ozone depletion), and the Kyoto protocol, (which is particularly interested in carbon dioxide emissions).

The UK legislation on emissions to atmosphere involves the combination of prior approval controls, which call for certain operators of processes to obtain permission from the regulators before they are allowed to operate their facilities, and other controls that prohibit certain emissions types when the facilities are in operation.

The main prior approval controls are contained within Part I of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and Part II of the Clean Air Act 1993. Other controls are provided by the Part I of the Clean Air Act 1993 and Part III of EPA 1990, which deals with various forms of statutory nuisance.