Air Quality Criteria

Air Quality Criteria for Oxone and Other Photochemical Oxidants, PubUcation No. EPA-600-8-84-020F, 5 vols., U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, N.C., 1986. EPA pubUshes separate criteria documents for aU the criteria poUutants and they are updated about every five years. 

For an excellent, comprehensive review of the chemistry, environmental, and anthropogenic release, environmental fate, and environmental and human health effects of lead, see Air Quality Criteria for Eead, Vol. I—IV, EPA-600/8-83/028a-dF, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., June 1986, -Msd Air Quality Criteria for Eead Supplement to the 1986 Addendum, EPA-600/8-89/049F, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., Aug. 1990. 

Air Quality Criteria forTead Supplement to the 1986 Addendum, U.S. EPA, Environmental Criteria and Assessment Office, Washington, D.C., 1990. Technical Support Document to Proposed Airborne Toxic Control Measure for Emissions of Toxic Metalsfrom Non-Ferrous Metal Melting, State of California Air Resources Board, Stationary Source Division, Sacramento, Calif., 1992. 

Air Quality Criteria for Sulfur Oxides, National Air Pollution Control Administration, U.S. Dept, of Health, Education, and Welfare, Washington, D.C.,Jan. 1969, pp. 89-102. 

I. Air Quality Criteria for Photochemical Oxidants National Air PoUution Administration Pub. No. AP-63, U.S. Government Printing Office,... 

Discuss the relative importance of air quality criteria and cost effectiveness in the setting of air quality standards. 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Air Quality Criteria for Lead," EPA 600/8-S.3-018F. Research Triangle Park, NC, June 1986. 

Air quality criteria are cause-effect relationships, observed experimentally, epidemiologically, or in the field, of exposure fo various ambient levels of specific pollutants. The relationships between adverse responses to air pollution and the air quality levels at which they occur have been discussed in Chapter 4 and illustrated in Table 4-5 and Fig. 4-10. 

For any pollutant, air quality criteria may refer to different types of effects. For example. Tables 22-1 through 22-6 list effects on humans, animals, vegetation, materials, and the atmosphere caused by various exposures to sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, and lead. These data are from fhe Air Quality Criteria for these pollutants published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

Criteria stipulate conditions of exposure and may refer to sensitive population groups or to the joint effects of several pollutants. Air quality criteria are descriptive. They describe effects that can be expected to occur wherever the ambient air level of a pollutant reaches or exceeds a specific concentration for a particular time period. Criteria will change as new information becomes available. 

Sources Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter and Sulfur Oxides, final draft, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC, December 1981 Review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Sulfur Oxides Assessment of Scientific and Technical Information, Draft OAQPS Staff Paper, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC, April 1982. 

Air quality standards prescribe pollutant levels that cannot legally be exceeded during a specific time period in a specific geographic area. Air quality standards are based on air quality criteria, with added safety factors as desired. 

EP.A. Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter, 4. Sampling and Analysis Methods for Partic-niitte Matter and Add Deposition. Research Triangle Park, NC. http //www.ep.i.gov/nceawwwl/pin vol 1. htm. 

Air Quality Criteria for Ozone and Related Photochemical Oxidants. Volume 1.3. Tropospheric Ozone and Its Precursors. Research Tranglc Park, NC EPA (1996). littp //w ww.epa.gov.ncea/ ozone.htm. 

EPA. 1986. Air quality criteria for lead. Research Triangle Park, NC US Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Office of Health and Environmental Assessment, Environmental Criteria and Assessment Office. EPA 600/8-83-028F. 

To protect humans and other mammals, proposed air-quality criteria range from 0.01 to less than 1.0 mg/m3 for metallic nickel and slightly soluble nickel compounds, 0.015-0.5 mg/m3 for water soluble nickel compounds, and 0.005 to 0.7 mg/m3 for nickel carbonyl (Table 6.10). Inhalation of nickel subsulfide concentrations (0.11 to 1.8 mg Ni/m3) near the current threshold limit value of 1 mg Ni/m3 can produce detrimental changes in the respiratory tract of rats after only a few days of exposure (Benson et al. 1995). Additional animal studies are recommended to identify minimally effective inhalation exposure levels for the various nickel compounds (USPHS 1993). Continued monitoring of nickel refining, nickel-cadmium battery manufacture, and nickel powder metallurgy installations is recommended because ambient air levels of bioavailable nickel at these... 

Toxic effects of nickel to humans and laboratory mammals are documented for respiratory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, hematological, musculoskeletal, hepatic, renal, dermal, ocular, immunological, developmental, neurological, and reproductive systems. Nickel toxicity in mammals is governed by the chemical form of nickel, dose, and route of exposure. Mammalian exposure to nickel by inhalation or cutaneous contact was more significant than oral exposure. To protect humans and other mammals against respiratory effects, proposed air-quality criteria are 0.01 to less than... 

FIGURE 2-1 Diurnal variation of nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone concentrations in Los Angeles, July 19, 1965. Reprinted from Air Quality Criteria for Photochemical Oxidants. ... 

As in Air Quality Criteria for Photochemical Oxidants,our concern will be with the broad subject of oxidant pollution in the atmosphere and the net oxidizing ability of the contaminants in an air sample. The standard corrections or adjustments to remove interferences from the data have already been implied in the primary references in most cases. Therefore, we need not refer to the early distinction between oxidant or total oxidants and corrected or adjusted oxidant. ... 

An international expert panel has issued an air quality criteria document for photochemical oxidants and related hydrocarbons that builds on the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (dhew) air quality criteria document for photochemical oxidants. It discusses oxidant concentration patterns in the context of the same tabular material presented earlier. New information is added for the city of Delft the monthly means of daily maximums of hourly ozone concentrations are shown in Table 4-3, and the monthly average ozone concentrations are shown in Table 4-4. As in other cities, the worst month seems to be August, with a mean daily maximum (of hourly concentrations) of 0.071 ppm (140 Mg/m ). Table 4-5 compares the number of days in May through July 1971 when the ozone concentration at one or more sites reached or exceeded the hourly average of 200 Mg/m or of 100 Mg/m (from NATO data °). A comparison is made between Delft and five other monitoring sites in the Netherlands. Amsterdam had a peak value of 0.18 ppm in March 1971. 

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