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May 02, 2005
AIR QUALITY HEADLINE INDICATOR FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The indictor is one of the Government's 15 former headline indicators of sustainable development and remains an indicator in the new UK Government Sustainable Development Strategy.
It measures the average number of days on which levels of any one of a basket of five pollutants (carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, fine particles and sulphur dioxide) were 'moderate or higher' according to the Air Pollution Information Service bandings. These five pollutants are recognized as the most important for causing short-term health effects.
Between 1993 and 2004, the average number of days of pollution at urban sites caused by fine particles, solely or in combination with other pollutants, fell from an average per site of about 43 days to 5 days per year. Particles come from numerous man-made and natural sources, and can be generated in the UK or transported from abroad. UK emissions of particles have been reduced substantially in recent years, but the number of pollution days can still fluctuate from year to year due to variations in weather conditions, as demonstrated by the unusually high figure of 17 in 2003.more
Posted by Syamak Moattari at May 2, 2005 10:05 AM
