Air Monitoring for Public Safety

Most people are aware about pollution in the external environment, and have started using ozone-friendly, recycled products. However, the indoor air quality is most often ignored as it appears to be healthy and free of pollution. In reality, it contains many pollutants that are harmful and can shorten your life. There are many micro-organisms, and background gases in the atmosphere that reduce the quality of the environment. The air you breathe should be of good quality to avoid the risk of heart disease, lung cancer and asthma attacks.

The chemical process of atmospheric reactions of gases such as sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide emitted from burning wood at home in residential fireplaces , wood stoves or burning fossil fuels in factories, power plants, steel mills, smelters, diesel- and gasoline-powered motor vehicles like cars, buses and trucks, produce particle pollution. These are harmful for health and can interfere with the proper functioning and growth of lungs.

Particle pollution, also known as particulate matter, is a mixture of microscopic solids and liquid droplets, including acids (such as nitrates and sulphates), organic chemicals, metals, soil or dust particles, and allergens. These particles occur year-round and are so minute that they can be only seen with an electron microscope.

You might be breathing particle pollution without knowing it, the larger particles may be coughed or sneezed out of your body whereas the smaller particles get trapped in the lungs, and can easily pass through the lungs into the blood stream. Sulphur dioxide pollution is more harmful when the concentration of particle pollution is high and can lead to medical emergency in asthmatic patients.

In the UK, Defra is the government department responsible for making policy and legislation, for the natural environment, biodiversity, plants and animals, environmental protection and pollution control. Directive 96/62/EC sets the standard for monitoring and reporting ambient air quality in the UK.

There are over 1500 air monitoring networks across the UK operating on behalf of the Defra and the Devolved Administrations. These are organised into automatic and non-automatic networks that use a particular method for gathering information. The automatic networks produce hourly pollutant concentrations, with data being collected from individual sites by modem.

The non-automatic networks measure less frequently either, daily, weekly, or monthly. Samples are collected physically by diffusion tube or filter, and are subjected to chemical analysis, to calculate the final pollutant concentrations. Green Air Monitoring Ltd, listed on SearchMe4, UK’s leading online business directory, provides factual information about the air quality of your workplace environment.

For more information on Air Monitoring Networks, visit our business directory.