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The 1920s in America

Air pollution

by John M. Theilmann

Questions of air quality were poorly understood by most Americans during the 1920s. People concerned with air quality concentrated on health and aesthetic issues, focusing their efforts on smoke abatement. The smoke abatement movement was concentrated largely in the industrial cities of the East and Midwest. Because coal powered much of American industry in the 1920s, coal smoke became a significant pollutant, even though most people did not understand its full impact at the time.

During the industrial growth of the nineteenth century, coal developed into a major energy source in the United States. By the 1920s, coal burning provided energy for all facets of U.S. industry and society, heating American homes, businesses, and schools, and generating much of the electric power that was beginning to change American life.

Anthracite coal, which burns with a relatively clean flame, was adopted as the primary energy source for cities such as New York and Boston. Other cities, including Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Birmingham, used less expensive bituminous coal, which produced more smoke and pollutants than anthracite coal.

Health Factors

Burning coal releases several pollutants, including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and heavy metals. Most Americans were unaware of the impact of these pollutants in the 1920s. They knew, however, that in certain locations, they had to turn on lights at midday because of coal smoke in the air, and that small children and people with respiratory ailments often developed health problems from exposure to coal smoke. Health professionals in cities such as Pittsburgh began to advocate reducing the amount of smoke in the air.

Smoke Abatement

No one called for a total ban on coal burning in the 1920s; however, a movement gained ground in urban areas such as Chicago, St. Louis, and other industrial cities to reduce the amount of black smoke in the air. By the early twentieth century, the amount of smoke in the air had become highly noticeable in some cities, sparking a series of smoke abatement ordinances intended to reduce the smoke pall that hung over urban areas.

Women’s groups were often the most active in seeking smoke abatement and continued to be so during the 1920s. They recognized the negative impact of coal smoke on human health and saw smoke abatement as a means to improve the health of urban areas. Other people called for smoke reduction because they were disturbed by the side effects of the smoke-generated fog that covered cities: Greasy residue from coal smoke would settle on everything from buildings to laundry hung outside to dry, and noxious odors caused by coal smoke had a negative impact on the quality of life in urban areas.

Efficiency and Smoke Control

Industrialists fought back against most efforts to control smoke pollution, since the continuing industrial development of U.S. cities depended on coal as an energy source. However, by the 1920s, some businesses such as railroads recognized excessive smoke as a sign of waste. Large amounts of black smoke emerging from a smokestack signaled that the coal was not being burned efficiently or that too much coal was in use. The quest for efficiency became a hallmark of industrial effort in the 1920s, as industrialists and entrepreneurs joined civic groups in seeking a way to reduce coal smoke, with economics acting as the driving force rather than health or aesthetic considerations.

In the early 1920s, for example, women’s anti-smoke groups in St. Louis combined with the chamber of commerce to create an educational campaign for smoke reduction. As the 1920s progressed, engineers replaced civic groups as leaders in smoke abatement campaigns. Technological changes also led to some decline in smoke emissions. More efficient boilers afforded lower coal consumption, while some railroads became electric during the 1920s, reducing the smoke associated with steam locomotives. However, even the combined forces of technology, a desire for increased efficiency, health concerns, and aesthetic considerations produced only small air quality improvements in most U.S. cities during the 1920s.

Police chasing car emitting smoke.

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(Getty Images)

Impact

Efforts to control air pollution in the 1920s tended to focus on the externals of air pollution, such as smoke, rather than on the more deeply harmful aspects of air pollution, which included heavy metals or the impact of sulfur dioxide on air and water quality. Emerging sources of air pollution, such as automobiles, were poorly understood and were not yet seen as a threat to air quality.

Even the most passionate advocates of smoke abatement did not call for the total abandonment of coal as an energy source, because, at that time, no other major source of energy was considered as productive. While efficiency experts and civic reformers united in trying to reduce the amount of smoke in the atmosphere, their activities produced little reduction in air pollution during the decade. Only the closing of U.S. factories during the Great Depression temporarily stalled the level of air pollution in the United States.

Citation Types

Type

Format

MLA 9th

Theilmann, John M. "Air Pollution." The 1920s in America, edited by Carl Rollyson, Salem Press, 2012. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=1920_0017.

APA 7th

Theilmann, J. M. (2012). Air pollution. In C. Rollyson (Ed.), The 1920s in America. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.

CMOS 17th

Theilmann, John M. "Air Pollution." Edited by Carl Rollyson. The 1920s in America. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2012. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.

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