Abstract

The purpose of this research is to analyze the origins of the public policy to combat atmospheric pollution in Santiago de Chile and, in particular, the role played by scientists in this process. In order to achieve this objective, legislative documentary sources, notes from the newspaper "El Mercurio" and scientific publications between 1961 and 1978 were examined, applying a mixed content analysis. The results suggest that the experts, making use of their national and international networks, were able to turn air quality into a problem of national interest that had to be solved through the elaboration of an integral regulation validated by the results of academic research and legitimized by an incipient social demand in the same sense. This led to the formation of successive technical-political commissions that undertook the task of understanding the air pollution problem and proposing measures for its resolution. Despite the early enactment of specific legislation, the evidence indicates that the complexity of the pollution problem exceeded the technical-political capacity of the State to solve the problem effectively, which has extended to the present.