The Alkali Act to Zeldin: A Century of Environmental Policy Battles

Following EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s March 12 announcement of 31 deregulation actions aimed at “driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families”, it’s worth considering how such regulations arose in the first place.

Early Industrial Air Pollution

The UK’s 1863 Alkali Act is often regarded as the first systematic attempt by any government to control industrial air pollution (the United States’ first federal air pollution legislation came 92 years later).

In his “Acid Towers and the Control of Chemical Pollution 1823–1876” article in the February 2008 Transactions of the Newcomen Society, independent researcher Peter Reed lays bare the issues that led to the need for an Alkali Act.

The Problem with the Leblanc Process

Blame can be firmly attached to the Leblanc industrial process for making soda. The process crossed the English Channel from France in the late 18th century in response to huge demand for soda from the booming soap and textile industries.

The two-stage process involves reacting salt with sulfuric acid to produce sodium sulfate and then reacting the sodium sulfate with coal and limestone to yield sodium carbonate (soda). 

At issue was the byproduct released into the atmosphere: hydrogen chloride, known as muriatic acid by alkali manufacturers and described as a regular “nuisance” by people living near production sites.

One complaint cited by Reed is typical of the problems caused by soda manufacturers and comes from the Proceedings of the Town Council of Newcastle upon Tyne (in the northeast of England), Jan. 9, 1839, p. 19. It reads, “The gas from these manufactories is of such a deleterious nature as to blight everything within its influence, and is alike baneful to health and property. The herbage of the fields in their vicinity is scorched, the gardens neither yield fruit nor vegetables; many flourishing trees have lately become rotten naked sticks. It tarnishes the furniture in our houses, and when we are exposed to it, which is of frequent occurrence, we are afflicted with coughs and pains in the head…all of which we attribute to the alkali works.”

Pressure Mounts for Regulation

It wasn’t until several wealthy landowners had their large estates damaged by muriatic acid emissions that legislation was considered seriously, however.

One such victim was Lord Derby, who in 1851 inherited 2,500 acres of land near a cluster of alkali works in northwest England. 

Derby, who was also prime minister on three occasions, was instrumental in setting up and running the 1862 government Select Committee on Injury from Noxious Vapours.

During one debate, he had to impress on legislators that the proposed act was by no means for the exclusive protection of the landed interest, as was sometimes asserted. Rather, it was one for the protection of the health and comfort of the inhabitants residing in the towns and neighborhoods where these works were carried on. “It had been said that things were mending, but the facts were exactly contrary; for every year matters were getting worse and worse,” Derby explained (*).

Lord Stanley of Alderley, a neighbor of Derby’s, noted that the amount of capital involved in alkali manufacture was upwards of £2 million and the annual value of its productions was £2.5 million; 19,000 persons were employed in it, and the wages paid reached £871,000 a year (£1 in 1860 is worth roughly $211 today).

He also stressed that if alkali production had been subject to the system of inspection proposed by the select committee, “the constant interference with its chemical experiments, combinations and processed would have been so paralysed that it never would have arrived at the position in which it stood at present.”

Edward Pleydell-Bouverie, member of Parliament for Kilmarnock in Scotland, described the proposed legislation as an entire novelty, focused as it was on just one trade. “Still greater evils produced by the noxious vapours created by other manufacturers, are left untouched,” he said.

Gossage Towers and Cleaner Air

During the Select Committee stage, it emerged that an “acid tower” patented by William Gossage in 1836 could condense almost all the muriatic acid gas by passing it through a deep bed of coke. 

Alderley noted that “this circumstance afforded a mode, which is adopted in some of the best-regulated works, for remedying the evil”.

Once the Alkali Act passed into law, Gossage condensing towers were installed at almost every Leblanc plant in the UK. 

“Without Gossage’s acid tower the nature of the legislation might have been very different; the quality of air would certainly have been very different,” concluded Reed in his article.

Just as Lord Derby and his contemporaries grappled with balancing industrial interests against public health 162 years ago, today's policymakers face similar dilemmas. Current debates over compounds like trifluoroacetic acid—featured in a July 23 Nature article titled "There's a new acid in our rain — should we be worried?”—demonstrate how scientists and regulators remain divided over environmental threats and their potential impact on chemical industries. 

From the Alkali Act of 1863 to Zeldin's 2025 deregulation agenda, the fundamental tension between economic growth and environmental protection continues to shape industrial policy, suggesting that while the specific pollutants may change, the underlying regulatory challenges remain remarkably consistent across centuries.

(*) All comments made during the progress of the Alkali Act are documented in Hansard, the UK government’s official record of parliamentary debates (and fully searchable here: https://hansard.parliament.uk/).