What laws, processes, and institutions exist to protect the American environment? To what degree do they succeed, and where do they fall short? This important new book concisely describes and evaluates America's pollution control system. It concludes, "For all its accomplishments... the pollution control regulatory system is deeply and fundamentally flawed." The authors, analysts with RFF's Center for Risk Management, examine the fragmented tangle of statutes, regulatory bodies, and programs designed to control environmental degradation in the United States. CRM Director Davies and Mazurek employ carefully chosen criteria such as pollution reduction, economic efficiency, and responsiveness to social values in order to judge the effectiveness of the various instruments -- and the system as a whole -- in protecting the environment. Their description of the system is concise and clear, and their selection of criteria is an important contribution to program evaluation. The book also compares U.S. performance with that of other countries. The authors' goal is a critical understanding of pollution regulation in the United States, thus laying the groundwork for improving it. Regulating Pollution emerges from a major research project undertaken by RFF's Center for Risk Management with support from the Andrew W. Mellon and Smith Richardson foundations. The three-year project constitutes the first in-depth, systematic evaluation of U.S. pollution control efforts.

The state of India's environment has been deteriorating steadily over the past two decades. Ambient standards of air, water and soil pollution are routinely exceeded with potentially disastrous consequences. Recognising the seriousness of the problem, the Indian government has recently introduced a series of measures which concentrate on practical aspects of implementation. | However, there are few studies available which can guide the formulation of policies in terms of the most appropriate choice of instruments which can contain pollution and protect India's environment. | That is the central purpose of this pioneering study - namely, to assess the efficacy of alternative instruments for pollution abatement based both on theoretical explorations and real-life case studies. The authors begin by reviewing the existing policy regime and analysing its impact on the quality of air and water in India's cities and rivers respectively. They then proceed to assess the choice of instruments for pollution control by linking economic and environmental systems.

Wood cores were taken at breast height of mature sugar maple (Acer Saccharum Marsh.) trees of approximately the same age from four sites in Ontario, Canada differing in soil characteristics and general tree health. The soils of two of the sites were acidic (podzols), while the soils of the other two sites were calcareous (brunisols). Selected elemental analyses using Neutron Activation Analysis were conducted on the soils and the xylem wood of the sugar maple trees, and the results were compared relative to tree health. Aluminum in stem xylem was found to be significantly higher in declining trees (mean 7.7 ppm) relative to the healthy trees (mean 4.0) from the acidic sites, where aluminum was freely available in the soil. Soil extractable aluminum was also significantly higher in the soil adjacent to the declining trees (mean 5.10) compared to the healthy trees (mean 3.20). These results show that xylem aluminum contents reflect the increased availability of aluminum in acidifying soils and provide additional evidence that dendrochemistry may be used as a proxy environmental monitoring tool.