• Definition of air pollution

• Global implications of air pollution

- Composition and Structure of Atmosphere
- Units of measurement
- Sources of pollutants
• Classification of Pollutants
- particulates, HC, CO, Oxides of S, Oxides of N,
Photochemical oxidants
 Indoor air pollution
• Most people spend a lot of their time indoors
• Attention has recently been given to the health
problems posed by air pollutants that originate
from:
- building materials
- furnishings
- equipment
- human activities like cooking, cleaning
and smoking
 Potential indoor pollutants
• Potential indoor pollutants identified by the
National Academy of Sciences for which
there is evidence of adverse health include:
- Formaldehyde
- Tobacco smoke
- Radon and radon daughters
- Unvented combustion appliances
- Aeropathogens
- Pesticides
- Asbestos
 Best approach
• To alleviate adverse health effects from
these substances, best approach is by
exposure reduction with control strategies
targeted.
 Air quality management concepts
• AQM is a term used to describe all the functions required
to control the quality of the atmosphere.
• Among the elements of such a program are:
- control regulations and strategy
- legal authority to implement the control strategy
- emission inventories
- atmospheric surveillance network
- data management system
- agency staffing and funding
- system for analysis of complaints
- stack sampling operations
 Ambient Air Quality & Emission Standards

• RA 8749 (CAA)
 Enforcement of Standards
Surveillance and Control

• What agencies?
 Air Quality Indexes
PSI (pollutant standard index) has been
developed by environmental agencies in
order to integrate the several complex
factors that make up “air quality”;
• This combines the ambient measures of the
five major criteria of pollutants into numbers
ranging from 0 to 500.
• The pollutants rated are CO, SO2, TSP,
photochemical oxidants or ozone, and NO2
 Pollutant Standard Index

• If the conc. of any one of the five major

and initial criteria pollutants rises to the
level of its air quality standard at any
monitoring station, the air quality in the
area is deemed unhealthy for that
particular day, even though conc. of the
other four criteria pollutants may be below
the national standards.
 Air quality Index
• AQI is an index for reporting daily air
quality. It tells you how clean or polluted
your air is, and what associated health
effects might be a concern for you.
• The AQI focused on health effects you may
experience within a few hours or days after
breathing polluted air.

Source: Environmental Protection Agency

Environmental performance index
Environmental performance index