These Topics are for the Ambient air quality section of the Atmosphere theme.

Topics for Climate

Ambient air quality

Health impacts of air pollution

The major aim of monitoring and reducing air pollution is to reduce its adverse impacts on human health.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
Introduction
South East CoastGreater Melbourne
Ambient air quality

Pollution types

Pollutants occur as gases (e.g. carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, ozone, and VOCs such as benzene and formaldehyde) and PM. In air pollution, PM refers to solid and liquid particles suspended in air, and the PM and air mixture is referred to as aerosol.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
Pressures
Ambient air quality

Ambient air quality: 2011–16 in context

Overall, the pressures on air quality remain very similar to those present in 2011: a growing population, greater urban density and increasing car travel, but a slowing in the growth of public transport patronage.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
Introduction
South East Coast
Ambient air quality

Pollution sources

Pollution sources are often characterised as anthropogenic (i.e. human-made), biogenic (i.e. natural and living) or geogenic (i.e. natural and nonliving).
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
Pressures
Greater MelbourneGreater Sydney
Ambient air quality

Increasing population

Globally, just over 50 per cent of the world’s population lives in cities; in Australia, it is 90 per cent.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
Pressures
Greater MelbourneGreater Sydney
Ambient air quality

Industry

Traditional major industry is in decline in Australia, and this has produced a corresponding decrease in many emissions to air.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
Pressures
Murray Darling
Ambient air quality

Motor vehicles

Motor vehicles emit a wide range of pollutants from their tailpipes, and are a major source of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon monoxide (e.g. Figure ATM30).
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
Pressures
Ambient air quality

Domestic wood heaters

Emissions from domestic wood heaters—particularly smoke, but also VOCs—remain a significant pressure on ambient air quality during cooler months of the year in several parts of Australia.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
Pressures
Murray DarlingTasmaniaAustralian Capital TerritoryEast CoastGreater Sydney
Ambient air quality

Commercial and other domestic sources

Emissions from commercial and domestic sources (domestic wood heaters are considered separately) exert pressure on local air quality and on airshed quality. Domestic sources, for example, can affect photochemical smog by releasing VOCs.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
Pressures
Ambient air quality

Prescribed burning and bushfires

Both prescribed burns and bushfires emit smoke plumes, which are visible because of the PM they contain. The smoke is the product of incomplete combustion. Fire emissions rates are affected by fire behaviour and the amount of fuel being burned.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
Pressures
Ambient air quality

Nonregulated diesel engines, including shipping and nonroad transport

Nonroad diesel engines and equipment are used in a wide variety of applications, including rail transport, mining, construction, industrial, shipping and airport services, and can be high pollution emitters.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
Pressures
Murray DarlingGreater Sydney
Ambient air quality

Climate change

Climate change may also have a significant effect on air pollution.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
Pressures
Ambient air quality

National air quality standards

The NEPC established national ambient air quality standards in 1998 as part of the National Environment Protection Measure for Ambient Air Quality (Air NEPM).
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
State and trends
Ambient air quality

Air quality index

In a number of states, the agency responsible for monitoring air quality reports results at each station in its network in terms of an air quality index (AQI; Box ATM9) for all or some of the pollutants covered b
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
State and trends
Ambient air quality

Carbon monoxide

Carbon monoxide is not discussed in SoE 2016, because there has been little change since the 2011 report. Please refer to SoE 2011 for information on carbon monoxide.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
State and trends
Ambient air quality

Lead

Lead levels have declined since the early 1990s, because of the ban on lead in petrol for motor vehicles. Although isolated hotspots of lead concentrations still exist in locations where lead smelting is undertaken, some of these are also decreasing.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
State and trends
South Australian Gulf
Ambient air quality

Nitrogen dioxide

The major source of nitrogen dioxide in Australia is burning of the fossil fuels coal, oil and gas. In cities, the predominant source is on-road vehicle emissions. The standards were met at all compliance sites in 2010–14, and have not been exceeded since the early 1990s.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
State and trends
Greater Sydney
Ambient air quality

Coarse particulate matter (PM10)

PM consists of microscopically small solid particles or liquid droplets suspended in the air.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
State and trends
Greater BrisbaneGreater DarwinGreater HobartGreater AdelaideAustralian Capital TerritoryGreater MelbourneGreater PerthGreater Sydney
Ambient air quality

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5)

PM2.5 is the finer particulate fraction of PM. PM2.5 particles are smaller, and therefore able to be transported further and persist for longer in the atmosphere than PM10.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
State and trends
Greater BrisbaneGreater DarwinGreater HobartGreater AdelaideAustralian Capital TerritoryEast CoastGreater MelbourneGreater PerthGreater Sydney
Ambient air quality

Ozone

Ozone is a secondary pollutant formed through the interaction of VOCs (see ‘Volatile organic compounds’) and nitrogen oxides (NOx; see ‘Nitrogen dioxide’). The AQI for ozone in all capital cities was deemed ‘good’ from 1999 to 2008, and remained steady during this time.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
State and trends
Greater BrisbaneAustralian Capital TerritoryGreater MelbourneGreater PerthGreater Sydney
Ambient air quality

Sulfur dioxide

Sulfur dioxide is not discussed in SoE 2016, because there has been little change since SoE 2011. Values in the capital cities are well below the Air NEPM standards.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
State and trends
South Australian GulfGulf of Carpentaria
Ambient air quality

Volatile organic compounds

VOCs are a group of carbon-based chemicals that easily evaporate at room temperature. Many common household materials and products, such as paints and cleaning products, give off VOCs.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
State and trends
Ambient air quality

Air toxics

Air toxics are pollutants that are usually present in ambient air in relatively low concentrations, but have characteristics such as toxicity or persistence that make them hazardous to human, plant or animal health.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
State and trends
North East CoastSouth Western PlateauTasmaniaGreater BrisbaneGreater DarwinGreater MelbourneGreater PerthGreater SydneyIndian Ocean
Ambient air quality

Management framework

Each level of government—Australian, state and territory, and local—plays a role in managing the impacts of air pollution by preventing or minimising air pollutant emissions.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
Effectiveness of management
Greater Sydney
Ambient air quality

Management of sources of pollution

Environmental agencies in the states and territories are responsible for controlling pollutant emissions from large industrial point sources, such as power stations, refineries, smelters, manufacturing plants, cement works and abattoirs.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
Effectiveness of management
South East CoastSouth Australian GulfEast CoastGreater SydneyGulf of Carpentaria
Ambient air quality

Industrial point sources

If not effectively controlled, emissions from industry can place health and amenity at risk, not only at the neighbourhood level, but more generally at the airshed level.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
Risks
Ambient air quality

Motor vehicles

Motor vehicles are a significant source of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Australia, comprising some 90 per cent of transport CO2 emissions, which made up 17 per cent of Australia’s net CO2-equivalent emissions in 2015 (see ‘Sectora
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
Risks
Ambient air quality

Domestic wood heaters

Smoke from domestic wood heaters remains a significant source of air pollution in some urban areas, regional towns and lower-density settlements, often contributing up to 50 per cent of the PM2.5 pollution on winter days.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
Risks
Ambient air quality

Commercial and other domestic sources

Commercial premises can pose a threat to health and amenity at the local level, mainly through emissions of particles and VOCs. VOC sources include aerosols, surface-coating operations and solvents (the latter being a particular cause of odour complaints).
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
Risks
Greater MelbourneGreater Sydney
Ambient air quality

Climate change

Climate change poses a threat to urban air quality and health through increases in particulate pollution (associated with more frequent bushfires and dust storms), and increases in the formation of ozone and other components of photochemical smog.
2016
Relates to
Ambient air quality
Risks
Keywood MD, Emmerson KM, Hibberd MF (2016). Ambient air quality: Topics. In: Australia state of the environment 2016, Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy, Canberra, https://soe.environment.gov.au/theme/ambient-air-quality/topics, DOI 10.4226/94/58b65c70bc372