The Problem with the UK’s Air Quality Monitoring Network
Air Quality Standards (AQS) are limits set by law for various pollutants to protect the public, especially those who are most vulnerable, from excessive pollution. However, there are no globally enforceable AQSs, and the UK’s AQSs are less strict than the non-binding World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.
In the UK, most air quality monitors are in place to check compliance with the UK’s AQSs. However, focusing solely on compliance with these standards is problematic. Thousands of individual measurements are often simply averaged to produce one figure which can be compared to the UK’s annual average AQSs – this results in a loss of valuable information.
Finally, focusing on compliance may create the impression that air quality in a compliant area is good and safe, which is not necessarily true as there are no safe levels of certain pollutants. Therefore, it is important to minimize exposure to air pollution despite differences in AQSs worldwide. One key way of doing this is by ‘going beyond compliance’ and rigorously analysing data sources to gain valuable insight.
How to go beyond mere compliance?
Harley Parfitt has written a guest insight piece for Vortex IOT, which can be read here. The article discusses what sort of techniques can be applied to air quality monitoring data to get as much insight from it as possible.
Greenavon Air Quality Consultants 