This book has described a range of environmental problems which are encountered in the UK and in other developed countries at the close of the twentieth century. We are fortunate that we are living in a time when our environment in the UK has improved greatly even though there are more of us and we are emitting more waste, whether it be fumes, effluents or rubbish. This is because there are many more controls and limits on how much we can discharge into the environment. There are always new pressures though: at the time of writing at the start of 1998, there is concern about air quality from the rapidly increasing numbers of private cars in towns and cities, and about groups of chemicals that can alter the endocrine systems responsible for reproduction of aquatic life. Some of these chemicals have produced male characteristics in marine molluscs whilst others have resulted in the feminization of male fish in some rivers.

These environmental pressures are being brought under control by new environmental laws. The European Union plays a major part now in environmental legislation and most environmental improvements in the UK are as a result of laws emanating from Brussels rather than London. In the water sector, there are EC Directives covering the quality of drinking water and bathing water, there are defined quality levels for waters for fish life and shellfish growing, there are limits on discharges for a great many hazardous substances, and there are standards for the quality of effluents discharged into rivers and the sea. Work is in progress on defining ‘good ecological quality’ waters with the aim that member states of the EU will achieve this status by 2010. There are also EU laws covering solid waste disposal, the amount of packaging used and its recycling, and there are targets for improving air quality and reducing emissions of acid gases and CO2, limits on noise emitted from a wide range of machinery, controls on the movement of radioactive and other hazardous wastes between countries, and many more environmental pollutants are covered by various Directives.