Mining corporations and air pollution science before the Age of Ecology

- Smoke smelter debate represents an interesting precursor of air pollution science.
- These conflicts evolved from being a public health problem to a property rights problem.
- The firms defend damage compensation to avoid the precautionary principle.
- The complexity of the research led to a controversy concerning the limits of science.
- The eco-efficiency principle “commercially feasible” led to more pollution.

Smelter smoke was the origin of great social conflicts from the 19th century. Institutions, mining companies, and affected groups hired scientists to back their arguments in these disputes. The main objective of the experts was to determine the influence of dust, fumes and especially gases, such as sulfur dioxide, on health and vegetation.Controversies led to an intense exchange of experiences and theoretical proposals in some European and, from the first decade of the 20th century, North American mining basins. Thus, the smoke smelter debate represents an interesting precursor of atmospheric pollution science before the Age of Ecology. This article analyzes this research through the study of conflicts from the 19th until the mid-20th century while emphasizing the strong influence exerted by big mining corporations, which have decisively conditioned its evolution. The complexity of research on an international and long-term problem, such as smelter smoke, gave place to an early and intense controversy on the limits and possibilities of science. Therefore, the last part of this article compares the arguments used in the mining conflicts which have been studied to some of the ideas presented by critical theories on “normal” science, as Post-normal Science.