Air Quality
Clean air is essential for our quality of life. Although air quality in the UK is good in general, the expansion of the transport and industry sectors have lead to unacceptable levels of air pollution in many urban centres that cause harm to human health and the environment.
Contact Details:
Telephone: 023 8083 4649
Details of service:
New air quality management areas are being declared
Following a review of air quality in the city, changes are being made to the boundaries of existing AQMAs and new areas are being declared. Read the 2008 AQMA leaflet under related documents to find out more about the new areas and how you can comment on the proposals.
Government Objectives for Air Quality
Government have produced an Air Quality Strategy to establish the future of ambient air quality policy in the UK. Within the strategy, national objectives have been set for improving air quality using health-based standards for key pollutants (updated in the Air Quality Regulations 2000). Local authorities have a key role to play in achieving these objectives.
| Key Pollutants | Main Source |
| Benzene | Petrol vehicles |
| 1,3-butadine | Road transport |
| Carbon monoxide | Petrol vehicles & industry |
| Lead | Petrol vehicles & industry |
| Nitrogen dioxide | Road transport & power generation |
| Particles (PM10) | Road transport, power generation & industry |
| Sulphur dioxide | Power generation & industry |
Local Air Qualty Management
The Air Quality Regulations require every local authority to undertake an Air Quality Review and Assessment. This report can be viewed using the document links on the right hand menu. Where air quality objectives are unlikely to be met, Air Quality Management Areas must be declared and action plans developed in pursuit of the objectives.
Southampton City Council recently completed a detailed assessment of local air quality. The scientific modelling process identified locations where air quality objectives will not be achieved for Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), the source of which is road transport vehicles.
Air Quality objectives for NO2(to be achieved by 31stDecember 2005) · An annual mean concentration of <40 µg/m3(21ppb) · A 1-hour mean concentration of 200µg/m3(105ppb), not to be exceeded more than 18 times per year (equivalent to a 99.8thpercentile)
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Last updated: 3 July 2008
