You are here:
Perspectives on the Design and Implementation of Air Pollution Measurement and Analysis Systems
Citation:
Vanderpool, R., A. Clements, AND L. Phelps. Perspectives on the Design and Implementation of Air Pollution Measurement and Analysis Systems. Symposium on Air Pollution Measurement and Analysis Systems (APMAS) Global Perspectives and Approach for India, RTP, North Carolina, January 14 - 20, 2021.
Impact/Purpose:
As part of the Symposium on Air Pollution Measurement and Analysis Systems (APMAS) Global Perspectives and Approach for India, organized by the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and the World Bank, U.S.EPA discussed the U.S. approach to the design and implementation of APMAS. The presentation will discuss the U.S. experience of establishing, running, and managing air quality monitoring and management systems and how the air quality measurement and analysis systems are organized in different geographical contexts and constituencies. The highlighted lessons learned may be useful to other countries seeking to establish, re-develop, or enhance a future air monitoring plan.
Description:
In the U.S., the Clean Air Act sets national limits for ambient concentrations of six “Criteria Pollutants” (CO, O3, SO2, NO2, Pb, and particulate matter) known to cause adverse health effects. The Act also requires nationwide monitoring of these pollutants using only instruments which have been formally approved by U.S. EPA as either Federal Reference Methods (FRMs) or Federal Equivalent Methods (FEMs). Although the overall pollutant measurement performance of these FRM/FEM instruments is widely recognized to produce reproduceable data of high quality, these regulatory instruments do not fulfill all possible monitoring needs. In recent years, smaller, lower cost, direct-reading air sensors have been developed to address the limitations of the FRM/FEM instruments. While these sensors do not provide regulatory type data, they fulfill the needs for more portable, lower cost instruments that support community science, spatial distribution studies, hotspot identification, public education, and personnel monitoring studies. This webinar will discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of the regulatory FRM/FEM instruments and of the sensor-based instruments used for non-regulatory monitoring. The complementary nature of these two measurement approaches in the U.S. will be discussed. Additional information about FRM/FEM instruments and quality assurance and control procedures can be found in The Ambient Monitoring Technology Information Center (AMTIC) located at https://www.epa.gov/amtic while additional information and resources about sensors can be found in the Air Sensors Toolbox located at https://www.epa.gov/air-sensor-toolbox.