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Peter Brimblecombe
To cite this article: Peter Brimblecombe (1976) Attitudes and Responses Towards Air Pollution
in Medieval England, Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association, 26:10, 941-945, DOI:
10.1080/00022470.1976.10470341
Peter Brimblecombe
University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom
It is possible to trace the rise of Lon- predominant problem in that period.1 from the thirteenth century until the
don's air pollution problem through Through the centuries that followed, year 1661, which is significant because
seven hundred years and to see that the other industries and domestic con- of the publication of the first serious
city's air quality has been intimately sumption became major contributors to work on air pollution, John Evelyn's
connected with the use of coal. In fact, London's smog, but even in Shake- Fumifugium; or the Inconvenience of
a history of air pollution is almost a spearean times, the reputation of the the Air and Smoke of London Dissi-
history of fuel. In the earliest air pollu- lime kiln remained, as the poet has pated. 3 It was immediately followed by
tion incidents, of the thirteenth century, Falstaff say that something he dislikes John Graunt's Natural and Political
it is not only possible to link the pollu- "is more hateful to me than the reek of Observations upon the Bills of Mortal-
tion with coal burning, but also to single a lime kiln." 2 This paper examines the ity,4 a statistical examination of the
out the lime burning industry as the perception and control of air pollution health of an urban population, attri-