Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Air pollution
(2,649 words)

1. Modern-Period perception

In today’s public consciousness, air pollution is a problem of modern industrial societies. However, concern about air pollution, and with it the fear of its effects on humans, animals, and plants, reaches far further back in history than is commonly assumed. This is due to the central medical significance ascribed to good, clean air by physicians and educated laymen ever since Antiquity. Already in the writ…

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Stolberg, Michael, “Air pollution”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_023509>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20160321



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