Importance of Ambient Air Quality Monitoring
Ambient air quality monitoring is necessary to determine the condition of ambient gases. Ambient air, for instance, is the air that we, living things, breathe. Its quality and content is directly affected by our activities. Likewise, it directly affects our health as well as the welfare of the ecosystems on Earth.
The composition of air is usually altered by the release of industrial and chemical pollutants into the atmosphere. Each time someone manufactures or burns fossil fuels, the ambient air becomes affected. Aside from these, ambient air is also affected by dirt and dust particles, ashes, pollen, smoke, and other tiny elements.
Under the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency or EPA is required to set standards and monitor the air quality. This is so human beings as well as animal and plants can benefit from clean air and be free of diseases caused by air pollution. The National Ambient Air Quality Standards has tracked six pollutants: ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, lead, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide.
These pollutants have an adverse effect on living creatures. For each of them, data are gathered and compared to the ambient air quality standards. Such standards are regularly updated. They indicate the maximum safe level for every pollutant; and if the pollutant exceeds a certain level, it will start to produce an unfavorable impact to people as well as the environment.
Communities should address the quality problem in case they have exceeded the parameters. They can pass legislations to encourage citizens to help keep the air clean. They can engage in activities that will help save the environment and keep the atmosphere protected. They can also make use of low cost monitoring techniques a well as passive samplers. Nonetheless, another way to protect the quality of air is to develop an air quality monitoring program.
The air quality monitoring program involves the collection of air samples for specific purposes including judging compliance with progress made toward meeting the standards, and activating emergency control processes that alleviate or prevent episodes of air pollution. It also aims to observe trends in pollution throughout different regions, provide a database for research effect evaluation, develop and evaluate abatement strategies, and develop and validate diffusion models.
The measurement of numerous air pollutants in specific locations is involved in the ambient air quality monitoring network. Different places in the country are observed in order to determine whether the air in these places meet the objectives of the network. Pollutants, location, frequency, sampling techniques, sampling duration, manpower, maintenance and operation costs, and infrastructural facilities are factors that affect the results.
