Clean Air Act 1997, United States of America

‘In 1993 researchers at Harvard (one of the top universities in America) published the “Six Cities study”, which definitively linked air quality to premature death using confidential medical records from 8,000 people. The study prompted the first regulations on fine particulate matter issued under the Clean Air Act in 1997. Manufacturers spent millions in an effort to dispute the science and called for release of the raw data, which the researchers, bound by a confidentiality agreement, refused. Today [2018] the findings are established science.’

Bibliography

‘Swamp science’, The Economist April 28th 2018 p.35.