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What is Air Quality?

The term air quality means the state of the air around us. Good air quality refers to clean, clear, unpolluted air.
Clean air is essential to maintaining the delicate balance of life on this planet not just for humans, but wildlife, vegetation, water and soil.

Poor air quality occurs when pollutants reach high enough concentrations to endanger human health and/or the environment. Air Quality result of a number of factors, including emissions from various sources, both natural and human-caused. Our everyday choices, such as driving cars and burning wood, can have a significant impact on air quality. Categories of Air Quality: 1. Ambient Air Quality refers to the quality of outdoor air in our surrounding environment. typically measured near ground level, away from direct sources of pollution. 2. Indoor Air Quality refers to the quality of air in an enclosed space, such as home, schools or workplaces.
"Air pollution isn't only an outdoor problem. The air in enclosed spaces, such as home, schools or workplaces, can also be polluted, from pollutants that have seeped in from the outdoors and pollutants emitted from indoor sources. In fact, some kinds of air pollution can be worse indoors than outdoors, such as tobacco smoke, mould, and chemicals released from synthetic fabrics, furnishings and household products. Indoor air quality is important, since we spend much of our time inside our homes and offices or establishments.

Factors affecting Air Quality: amount and kind of pollutants that are released into the air play a major role in determining the degree of air pollution in a specific area. Other Factors affecting Air Quality: 1. topography (terrain), such as mountains and valleys; 2. weather, such as wind, temperature, air turbulence, air pressure, rainfall and cloud cover; and 3. physical and chemical properties of pollutants. Air pollutants are any gas, liquid or solid substance that have been emitted into the atmosphere and are in high enough concentrations to be considered harmful to the environment, or human, animal and plant health. Common Pollutants can be visible (e.g., the brownish-yellow colour of smog) or invisible. Besides affecting human health and the environment, air pollutants can also hamper our ability to see very far (visibility). Six Principal Air Pollutants: 1. Carbon Monoxide 2. Lead 3. Nitrogen Dioxide 4. Ozone 5. Particle Pollution 6. Sulfur Dioxide National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)
as of October 2011

Pollutant [final rule cite] Carbon Monoxide


[76 FR 54294, Aug 31, 2011]

Primary/ Secondary primary primary and secondary primary primary and secondary primary and secondary primary secondary primary and secondary primary and secondary primary secondary

Averaging Time 8-hour 1-hour Rolling 3 month average 1-hour Annual 8-hour Annual Annual 24-hour 24-hour 1-hour 3-hour

Level 9 ppm 35 ppm 0.15 g/m 100 ppb 53 ppb 0.075 ppm 12 g/m 3 15 g/m 3 35 g/m 150 g/m 75 ppb 0.5 ppm
3 3 3

Form Not to be exceeded more than once per year Not to be exceeded 98th percentile, averaged over 3 years Annual Mean Annual fourth-highest daily maximum 8-hr concentration, averaged over 3 years annual mean, averaged over 3 years annual mean, averaged over 3 years 98th percentile, averaged over 3 years Not to be exceeded more than once per year on average over 3 years 99th percentile of 1-hour daily maximum concentrations, averaged over 3 years Not to be exceeded more than once per year

Lead [73 FR 66964, Nov 12, 2008] Nitrogen Dioxide


[75 FR 6474, Feb 9, 2010] [61 FR 52852, Oct 8, 1996]

Ozone
[73 FR 16436, Mar 27, 2008]

Particle Pollution Dec 14, 2012

PM2.5 PM10

Sulfur Dioxide
[75 FR 35520, Jun 22, 2010] [38 FR 25678, Sept 14, 1973]

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