Current Banding
In 1997, the old UK air quality banding scheme (ranging from Very Good
to Poor) was replaced in order to make air quality information more meaningful,
by using a set of criteria based on what is known about their health effects.
These bands range from 'low' to 'moderate' to 'high' to 'very high'. The
first threshold is called the "standard threshold", and is defined by the
UK National Air Quality Standard for the appropriate pollutant. The second
and third thresholds are the "information" and "alert" levels corresponding
to EC Directives on Air Quality.
The set of bands for each pollutant is available in tabular form from
the National
Air Quality Information Archive. The risk of predicted associated health
effects and actions corresponding to these thresholds are indicated in
that table.
Old Banding
(For information only)
Air Quality Bands for old data from the UK Dept of the Environment are
provided hereunder for information and reference purposes.
The following are based on hourly mean concentrations in ppb (parts
per billion):
|
Very Good
|
Good
|
Poor
|
Very Poor
|
| Nitrogen Dioxide |
<50
|
50 -100
|
100-300
|
>300
|
| Sulphur Dioxide |
<60
|
60 -125
|
125-400
|
>400
|
| Ozone |
<50
|
50 - 90
|
90-180
|
>180
|
|
