The Air Quality Management Program
The Environmental Protection Agency better known as the EPA is ultimately responsible for the air quality management in the United States of America. Although, the EPA delegates other businesses, programs, groups, organizations and entities the various jobs connected to air quality management they are the group or organization appointed the task by the federal government.
The EPA has the obligation of the next air quality management criteria, air quality meliorations, air quality monitoring, home air quality, inside air quality, outdoor air quality, inadequate air quality, air quality standards updates, air quality testing and air quality levels. These are just few of the many air quality management areas of concern that the EPA is expected to monitor.
The criteria involved with air quality management are grouped into Primary and Secondary air quality criteria. Primary air quality standards were set to protect public health. The Primary criteria include “sensitive” pollutants such as those that contribute to asthma and the pollutants life-threatening to children and the older. Secondary air quality standards are those determined to the well-being of the public. The pollutants included in the Secondary criteria include pollutants striking animals, visibility, constructions, crops and vegetation.
The reason that the EPA is in the end responsible for air quality management is because of the Clean Air Act of 1970. In 1970, the Clean Air Act was given and produced the need for an organization to manage the particular aspects of the act.
The Clean Air Act exacts the EPA to place air quality criteria for six harmful pollutants. The six pollutants that the EPA Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards or the OAQPS has prepared criteria for are Carbon Monoxide Gas, Lead, Nitrogen Dioxide, Ozone, Particulate Matter and Sulfur Dioxide. These six pollutants are called “criteria” pollutants. The units used to measure out these pollutants are parts per million (ppm) by volume, milligrams (mg/m3), and micrograms per cubic meter of air (µg/m3).
These pollutants were named and the standards were established because the Clean Air Act expects the EPA to do so. The Clean Air Act also orders the EPA to review and update these standards to make sure that they remain to protect the public and the environment, as the updates are needed.
In 1990, the last amendment was added to the Clean Air Act. The Clean Air Act is still reexamined for necessary amendments and modifications as science and industry alter the manner that the supervising and testing is done.
The EPA practices air quality management because they were the organization addressed responsible by the United States government after the Clean Air Act was passed in 1970.
