Air pollution is the bad breath of life. Throughout the world there is a heightened awareness of environmental issues, and the need to adjust administrative machinery to take account of this change is paramount. This paper suggests that a restructuring of New Zealand's air pollution control strategies is required to provide for an interdisciplinary approach to a multi-faceted problem that is demonstrably worsening. It examines some of the present nontechnical air pollution control constraints in an endeavour to highlight the lack of an integrated resource management scheme in our current legislation and administration.