Case Study

AIR QUALITY: MEASURING AND QUANTIFYING AIRBORNE POLLUTANTS

RESEARCH SUMMARY

For 20 years, Dr Mathew R Heal of the Edinburgh and St Andrews Research School of Chemistry (EaStCHEM) has been leading a programme of pollution research on all three of the most important air

pollutants – NO2, PM2.5 and O3.

Measurement of ambient NO2 by passive diffusion tube is widely used in the UK as part of air quality assessments required by law. THE IMPACT ON HUMAN HEALTH After determining that the prescribed is the environmental factor with the greatest methods were subject to inaccuracies, impact on human health in the EU. Heal group researchers defined optimal methods for new more accurate and reliable Particulate matter (PM2.5), ozone (O3) and nitrogen dioxide measurements.

(NO2) are the most important contributors to poor air quality, with up to 30 per cent of the EU urban population estimated Determinations of the carbon-14 radioisotope quantities in samples of PM to be exposed to pollutant levels greater than EU limit values. 2.5 showed that much less of the material Exposure to PM2.5 alone is estimated to reduce average life derived from fossil fuel origins than was expectancy in the UK by six months, with estimated annual generally assumed. costs of between £9 billion and £20 billion. The group also used atmospheric chemistry Research into air pollution at the University of Edinburgh has transport models to quantify the sensitivity contributed evidence to formulation of government policies of PM2.5 components to reductions in and has informed UK national guidance and policy-evidence industrial and other emissions, in order to documents for the Department for Environment, Food and identify which measures could best protect Rural Affairs (Defra), the Health Protection Agency and the the population from exposure. Environment Agencies. Heal group research has also shown how atmospheric models can simulate

current O3 concentrations with high

spatial resolution and predict future O3 concentrations, as well as regional hospital admissions and deaths resulting from a range of future emissions and change scenarios. RELEVANT RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS FROM THE HEAL GROUP Heal, M.R., O’Donoghue, M.A., Cape, J.N. (1999) Overestimation of urban nitrogen dioxide by passive diffusion tubes: a comparative exposure and model study. Atmospheric Environment, 33, 513–524. doi:10.1016/S1352-2310(98)00290-8 Heal, M.R., Naysmith, P., Cook, G.T., Xu, S., Raventos, D.T., Harrison, R.M. (2011) Application of 14C analyses to source

apportionment of carbonaceous PM2.5 in the UK, Atmospheric Environment 45, 2341– 2348. doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2011.02.029

Impact on human health. Heal, M.R., Heaviside, C., Doherty, R.M., Vieno, M., Stevenson, D.S., Vardoulakis, PUTTING RESEARCH INTO ACTION: INFORMING S. (2013). Health burdens of surface ozone ASSESSMENTS OF AIR QUALITY AND POLICY in the UK for a range of future scenarios. Environment International, 61, 36–44. NO2: Dr Heal’s more accurate and reliable methods are now incorporated into protocols applied to measurements of doi:10.1016/j.envint.2013.09.010

NO2 for statutory air quality assessments in all urban areas Vieno, M., Heal, M.R., et al. (2014) The in the UK, of which >139,000 are made annually, at a cost role of long-range transport and domestic of £500,000. emissions in determining atmospheric secondary inorganic particle concentrations PM2.5: The Heal group’s surprising findings on the high levels of contemporary (rather than fossil) carbon in samples of across the UK. Atmospheric Chemistry and PM have been important for informing the most effective Physics, 14, 8435-8447. doi: 10.5194/acp- 2.5 14-8435-2014 PM2.5 reduction policy actions to protect the population.

O3: Heal group research has contributed to awareness of relative impacts of policy actions to reduce emissions compared with , to new recommendations to raise public awareness of the adverse health effects of surface O3, and to strengthening warning systems with targeted ozone alerts for high risk groups. CONTACT

Dr Mathew R Heal School of Chemistry The King’s Buildings West Mains Road Edinburgh EH9 3FJ UK [email protected]

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