Something in the air at AEA
7 Apr 2000
Air quality monitoring is to take a leap forward at AEA Technology, which has been awarded two government contracts to measure levels of airborne hazardous pollutants. Worth a total of £1.5million over the next three years, the projects will help the government formulate future air quality policy.
The first of the contracts covers levels of dioxins, furans and polychlorinated biphenyls, all of which accumulate in the body and have been connected with health problems in children. Other substances which will also be monitored include trace heavy metals such as lead and cadmium. AEA has set up 11 monitoring stations for this project, ranging from major industrial centres such as London and rural areas such as the Lake District.
The second contract switches the emphasis from industry to transport, looking at polyaromatic hydrocarbons such as benzo[a]pyrene. These are produced by incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons in fuel, and exposure to them is thought to increase the risk of lung cancer.
The projects will show how the pollutants are distributed across Britain. These will feed into the government's National Air Quality Strategy update, announced by enviroment minister Michael Meacher in January, which will set out new targets for pollution reduction. `This monitoring will also give the government the information it needs for negotiations with other European countries on emissions reduction,' comments AEA's Peter Coleman.
