ACT Health Director-General Peggy Brown . Photo: Jeffrey Chan
Canberrans can now check the quality of the capital’s air online in real time.
ACT Health Director-General Peggy Brown launched the new Air Quality Index on Monday.
The index allows residents to interpret air pollutants, detected by Canberra’s three monitoring stations in Florey, Monash and Civic, as a percentage compared to the Ambient Air Quality National Environment Protection Measure.
The measure sets air quality standards for common pollutants monitored by Canberra’s three stations: carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, particulate matter less than 10 microns (PM10) and particulate matter less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5).
“An AQI of 50 indicates the pollutant is at 50 per cent of what the standard allows,” Dr Brown said.
“If it’s over 100 it means it’s higher than what the national standards says. The lower the number the better the outcome in terms of the quality of our air.”
Dr Brown said the new website enabled Canberrans to interpret air quality data in a meaningful way. The data has been categorised as good, fair, poor, very poor or hazardous.
“At times when there are concerns about pollutants in the air, particularly with respiratory illnessess … we are going to be really interested to see this data in real time and what the quality of the air is,” Dr Brown said.
The Air Quality Index is available at the ACT Health website alongside background information: www.health.act.gov.au