Air Quality Management and Air Pollution Status - Essay Example

?Environment Agency Introduction Air quality control is an incessant issue in the United Kingdom like in the case of any other industrially developedeconomy. Although the UK government has taken a series of measures to address this issue, air quality still remains to be a threat to both humans and environmental sustainability. There are a number of governmental and non-governmental agencies functioning in UK to develop ways to bring air quality under control. “The Environment Agency is a British non-departmental public body”, which functions under the supervision and control of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Search, n.d). The organisation plays a regulative role in reducing the emission of air pollutants into the atmosphere from huge industrial processes and thereby improving the air quality in the country. Recently, the agency has planned to extent its operational area to large scale agricultural activities too while giving exception to some agricultural activities that cause release of air pollutants. This paper will critically evaluate the role and effectiveness of UK’s Environmental Agency in promoting air quality in the country. Air pollution in UK Air pollution is a drastically growing issue in the United Kingdom at both local and national levels. Although the air pollution in UK has been better improved over the last decade, it still struggles with air quality issues. Official data indicate that CO2 emissions significantly contribute to the UK’s pollution issue. The UK Air Quality Strategy gives specific focus on emission of air pollutants including benzene, 1,3-butadiene, lead, ozone, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides (DEFRA, 2012). Road transport, fuel combustion, and industrial emissions are some of the major sources of air pollution in UK. Historically, the UK has been greatly suffering from sulphur dioxide and smoke emissions. Nowadays, traffic emissions are growing to be a potential impediment to the UK’s air pollution control efforts. Combustion of fossil fuels has an increasing impact on the UK’s urban air quality. As we mentioned above, air pollution has a range of negative effects on both health and environment. Even though moderate levels of air pollution are not likely to have any serious effect on a normal individual, continuous and long term exposure to air pollution may result in threatening health conditions including inflammatory and respiratory system failures. Air pollution more severely affects the long term sustainability of the environment. Emission of air pollutants like CO2 causes depletion of ozone layer and allows infrared and other harmful rays to enter the earth’s atmosphere. Such rays are dangerous to a number of ecosystems and therefore cause to destroy the balance of ecology. Researchers argue that air pollution can have devastating impacts on biodiversity and crop yields. In UK, several studies are being conducted to accurately explore the effects of air pollution on vegetation. Primarily, the UK has started its response to air pollution by the middle of the 20th century when issues like urban smog, black smoke, and sulphur dioxide had begun to threaten the country’s environmental safety. The United Kingdom started to monitor its air pollution issues on a national scale in 1961 (UK Air Pollution, 2003). In the strength of such initiatives, the country could notably reduce coal burning emissions to a great extent. When the country focused more on the reduction of combustion related emissions, transport sector grew to be the most potential source of air pollution in most regions of the UK. In order to effectively address this historic change, the UK government’s focus has progressively turned to traffic pollutants including ozone, fine particular matter, and nitrogen dioxide. Some data indicate that UK’s air monitoring networks have noticeably developed over the last two decades; but, this growth did not much contribute to air quality level improvement. Increasing awareness of environmental sustainability, UK’s Air Quality Strategy, and a range of EU policies have been promoting air quality for the few decades. In order to support the national level air quality control efforts, Local Authorities also provide great emphasis on air quality assurance. At present, more than 1300 national air quality monitoring sites are functioning across the UK with different coverage and objectives (UK Air Pollution, 2003). These types of automatic and non-automatic sites have greatly improved air quality in UK. The defra website gives detailed information of the UK air pollution on the basis of different zones. From this data, it is clear that all regions of the UK lie under the Low Index Band (DEFRA: UK pollution forecast summary, 2012). It directly indicates the country’s efficiency in promoting air quality. It is predicted that this air quality would continue to improve if the current breezy and rainy climatic conditions persist. Role of Environment Agency As we discussed earlier, nowadays local authorities play a significant role in regulating air pollution caused by small industrial processes. The Environment Agency closely works with local authorities, the Highway Agency, and other related organisations to execute the government’s air quality strategy in England and Wales in accordance with the provisions of the Environment Act 1995. The Air Quality Modelling and Assessment Unit (AQMAU) functions to make sure that air quality assessments for different purposes and investigation of air pollution incidents are based on sound science principles. This Unit also has the duty to ensure that such operations are of a high standard and consistent. One of the most important functions of the agency is to continuously monitor industrial chimneys, stacks, and flues. Industrial companies under the jurisdiction of Environment Agency are legally required to continuously measure emissions from their chimneys. The agency has clearly defined performance standards and test procedures. The Environment Agency needs to ensure that the emission monitoring activities are carried out using standard laboratories and certified staff. In addition, the agency continuously monitors air to obtain up-to-second information regarding air quality and thereby promote environmental safety. It mainly measures the levels of sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, metals, benzene, ozone, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and particulates in air (Environmental Agency, 2011). The agency has the duty to make certain that industrial companies use isokinetic samplers to take samples of some specific pollutants in chimneys. It promotes the use of portable equipments to address pollution caused by emissions from industrial chimneys, landfill sites, and damaged pipes. The Environment Agency has also the duty to carry out training and further research and development activities to improve air quality conditions in UK. Finally, the agency has developed a software tool to evaluate air monitoring data. After gathering air monitoring data, the Environment Agency analyses the air quality using its software. Based on the air data analysis, the agency makes some predictions about the UK’s future air quality levels. Effectiveness of Environment Agency While analysing the historic change in UK’s air quality, it seems that the Environment Agency has played a significant role in keeping the country’s air pollution at a satisfactory level. Since the agency works with local authorities, it is possible to promote air quality improvement initiatives from the base level. Through continuously monitoring emissions from industrial chimneys, the agency can regulate level of air pollutants emitted. Furthermore, “continuous monitoring of these emissions ensures that the environment is being properly protected and helps them manage their impact on the environment” (Environmental Agency: Continuous monitoring of industrial chimneys, 2011). As the agency maintains accurate standards for industrial emissions, it can easily detect emissions above the fixed levels. The agency has set definite standards for laboratories, staff, and monitoring procedures; this provision assists the agency to ensure that the process of air monitoring meets predetermined performance standards. In other words, rigid performance policies aid the Environment Agency to avoid monitoring errors and thereby improve operational efficiency. The vehement efforts taken by the agency for controlling industrial emissions (one of the major causes of air pollution in UK) have been successful. The current data indicate that the UK has dramatically improved its industrial emissions over the last decade. As the agency continuously monitors and collects air quality information, it is easy to adopt timely strategies to control air quality if there is any increase in the level of air pollution. In short, the Agency’s systematic and thoughtful operations help keep UK’s air quality at a better level. The agency gives specific focus on control of extremely harmful air pollutants like sulphur dioxide and this policy benefits the country to identify major emission sources of those pollutants and thereby develop measures to reduce emission levels. By promoting the use of isokinetic samplers and portable equipments, the Environment Agency ensures that no dangerous emission goes unidentified. As Warren (2009) points out, the Environment Agency suggests the use of automatic samplers for aerosol monitoring and continuous samplers for long term dioxin monitoring. This type of strict and systematic procedures would assist the country to accurately detect air quality across different regions of the UK. Evidences show that portable equipments have of considerable importance in exploring uncommon sources of air pollution. By air data analysis and air quality predictions, the agency obtains a clear view of the future air pollution status of the country. Thus, the Environment Agency frames timely policies to get rid of the persisting air pollution issues by exploring and defusing sources of pollution. It seems that the agency’s air quality predictions stimulate other governmental and non-governmental organisations to proactively involve in fighting air pollution. The Air Quality Modelling and Assessment Unit (AWMAU) provides businesses and other organisations with sound advice on matters concerning regulatory modelling and environmental and health impact assessments. The AQMAU helps organisations with PPC applications, incident investigation, local air quality management, and compliance demonstration (Environment Agency: AQMAU, n.d). As per the provision of the Enforcement and Prosecution Policy 2008, the Environmental agency has the power to recover losses from the responsible parties while carrying out remedial works. This situation puts a moral check on organisations that are likely to violate air quality laws. Therefore, they would be more concerned about their air pollutants’ emission levels and this situation may contribute to the country’s air quality control efforts. In addition, the Environment Agency has given the power to prosecute organisations or individuals that that have committed an extremely serious environmental crime (Developing a Framework for Effective Air Quality Management, n.d). The agency has specifically defined situations where an organisation or individual will hurt the UK’s air quality interests. Since the agency has extensive power over environmental issues, organisations and people may completely adhere to stated policies and regulations of the agency. The agency supervises environmental impact assessment and evaluates the feasibility of the proposed project. As per the directives issued by the Environment Agency, business houses or individuals are required to submit an environmental statement describing possible environmental effects of the planned development along with planning application to the concerned local authority (Technical guidance document). By such a directive, the agency can assess potential environmental impacts of the proposed venture before sanctioning its development. If the environmental statement is not up to the stated standard, the agency provides its clients with possible suggestions to fix the issue and thereby go on with the proposal. Such strict procedures practiced by the agency ensure that no industry or business operates in UK without meeting necessary air quality requirements. The agency assists the UK government to compare and analyse local air quality with predefined quality standards for different pollutants (Technical guidance document). Through this practice, the agency discovers areas that require further improvement. Once such an area is identified; the Environment Agency, with the help of respective local authorities, frames specific operational strategies to improve air quality in that area. Hence, the Environment Agency’s air quality monitoring represents an integral part of the UK’s air quality management system (Environment Agency, 2004). The agency continuously strives to develop new means of air quality control and thereby further improve UK’s air quality management efforts. A number of innovative air quality control technologies were developed over the last two decades under the leadership of the Environmental Agency. Most of such technologies greatly assisted the country to trim down air quality management spending to a large extent and improve overall air pollution status. Conclusions The UK Environmental Agency plays a pivotal role in improving the country’s air quality control initiatives. The agency works in association with local authorities and evaluates region-based air quality variations. The agency possesses a range of duties and powers to limit the volume of air pollutants emitted into the atmosphere. In short, the agency’s operations are very effective to save the United Kingdom from the adverse environmental and health impacts of air pollution. References DEFRA: Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs., 2012. Emissions of Air pollutants in the UK, 1970 to 2010 – Supplementary, [Online] Available at: [Accessed 20 April 2012]. DEFRA: Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs., 2012. UK pollution forecast summary, [Online] Available at: [Accessed 20 April 2012]. Developing a Framework for Effective Air Quality Management., n.d. Implementation of Air Quality Plans, United Kingdom Air Quality Management Program, [Online] Available at: [Accessed 20 April 2012]. Environment Agency., n.d. AQMAU: Air Quality Modeling and Assessment Unit, [Online] Available at: [Accessed 20 April 2012]. Environment Agency., 2004. Monitoring of particulate matter in ambient air around waste facilities: Technical guidance document (monitoring) M17, pp. 1-140, [Online] Available at: [Accessed 20 April 2012]. Environment Agency., 2011. Monitoring ambient air quality, [Online] Available at: [Accessed 20 April 2012]. Environment Agency., 2011. Continuous monitoring of industrial chimneys, stacks and flues, [Online] Available at: Search., n.d. Environment agency, [Online] Available at: [Accessed 20 April 2012]. UK Air Pollution., 2003. The UK’s policy for tackling air pollution, National Environmental Technology Center ,pp. 1-15, [Online] Available at: [Accessed 20 April 2012]. Warren, A., 2009. Energy and environmental management: Plus focus on air emissions and pollution control, WWEM 2010, [Online] Available at: [Accessed 20 April 2012]. Read More