| Smog has been one of the most intractable environmental problems in the United States, especially in Southern California. Beginning in the early 1940s, when smog first appeared in Los Angeles, there was considerable uncertainty regarding its nature and potential effect on health. Few residents or experts could have predicted the long-term consequences for everyday life and the challenges to public health institutions and social relations of expertise. Beyond the substantial economic impact of air pollution control, smog was a particularly perplexing public problem and, thus, presents an interesting case for the study of the politics of public health knowledge. It was a highly visible, publicly accessible phenomenon, yet, was produced by the reaction of invisible gases, measured with specialized equipment, and defined by esoteric effects. The process by which expert and lay communities made smog and its effects visible is in need of explanation.; This historical case study in the sociology of scientific knowledge examines the simultaneous construction of smog as a scientific object and as a social problem within various domains of expertise. It is based on an analysis of government documents, archival materials, scientific literature, and mass media accounts, produced primarily during the period between World War II and the passage of the Clean Air Act of 1970. By combining theoretical and methodological approaches from science and technology studies with the sociology of culture, the research shows the ways in which physical scientists, engineers, biomedical researchers, public health officials, and activist citizens constructed smog as a moral, physical, medical, and political object. Although grounded in the practices and beliefs of particular knowledge communities, the credibility of these objectifications of smog depended on specific forms of public accountability and framing of political interests. The account begins with a discussion of the cultural context that shaped the perception of smog and structured its emergence as a scientific and social problem. This new phenomenon was constituted as a scientific object through field and laboratory studies, and conceptions of smog developed further in the course of public health debates. Finally, a system of standards evolved as a way of regulating the problem. |
