The Air Quality Index rating was developed by Alberta Environment to provide an overall measure of outdoor air quality, allowing communities to easily determine their local air quality.
The hourly Air Quality Index
In our airshed, we have four monitoring stations that collect and report the combination of pollutants necessary for Alberta Environment to calculate an Air Quality Index every hour. These stations are located at: Elk Island, Fort Saskatchewan, Lamont and, most recently, Bruderheim, which began to monitor air quality in April 2010.
For hourly calculations of the Air Quality Index at these sites, go to Alberta Environment.
The yearly Air Quality Index
Averaged out over 2009, the air quality in Elk Island, Fort Saskatchewan and Lamont was calculated to be “Good” between 91% and over 96% of the time.
What Air Quality Index ratings mean
The Air Quality Index is based on outdoor concentrations of carbon monoxide, fine particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and sulphur dioxide. A minimum of four of the above listed pollutants (one of which must be fine particulate matter) is required to calculate the Air Quality Index.
Alberta Environment calculates the Air Quality Index by converting the concentrations of these pollutants to an Air Quality Index value as follows:
The Air Quality Index is a way of describing our outdoor air quality. Alberta Environment calculates the Air Quality Index by converting the concentrations of carbon monoxide, fine particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, ground-level ozone and sulphur dioxide to an Air Quality Index number. Four out of these five parameters are required to generate an Air Quality Index value as follows:
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a rating of 0 to 25 indicates good air quality. This is the best possible rating and means there are no known harmful effects to human or environmental health. |
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a rating of 26-50 is fair air quality, which means there is adequate protection against harmful effects. |
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a rating of 51-100 indicates poor air quality and not all aspects of the environment are adequately protected from possible adverse effects. |
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a rating of more than 100 is very poor air quality, which means continued high readings could pose a risk to human health. |
Two stations in the Fort Air Partnership Airshed Zone currently have the required number of parameters to calculate an Air Quality Index: Fort Saskatchewan Station and Lamont Station.
Call 427-7273 for the latest hourly Air Quality Index report. Or you can go on-line to: http://www.telusgeomatics.com/tgpub/ag_air/default.asp
Historical Air Quality Index information for various locations can also be obtained through the CASA Datwarehouse:
http://www.casadata.org/ (Click on Data reports, then select “Air Quality Index”)