anti-pollution when did it start

I remember back in 1969 I was just out of high school and I drove a old 57 Chevy that left somewhat of a blue smoke trail. A cop pulled me over and gave me a ticket for a defective muffler. I told him the muffler was fine it was the rings that were bad. He said "yeah but we don't have an ordnance for bad rings"

Times have changed