tailieunhanh - AIR UALITY INDEX: A Guide to Air Quality and Your Health

This chapter examines the link between Paso del Norte’s air pollution and its maquiladoras. To what extent are maquiladoras responsible for this pollution? What impacts does it have on human health? Are the poor disproportionately affected? Unfortunately, little reliable publicly available data exist to answer these questions. This chapter takes a first step toward filling this gap by marshalling two types of evidence. First, we use a publicly available sector-level emissions inventory for Ciudad Juárez to determine the importance of all industrial facilities (including maquiladoras) as a source of air pollution. Second, we use. | ẪERA United States Environmental Protection Agency . Environmental Protection Agency Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards Outreach and Information Division Research Triangle Park NC August 2009 EPA-456 F-09-002 AIR QUALITY INDEX A Guide to Air Quality and Your Health Recycled recyclable. Printed with vegetable oil-based inks on 100 postconsumer process chlorine-free recycled paper. Its a code red day for ozone. Particle pollution levels are forecast to be unhealthy for sensitive groups. Local air quality is very unhealthy today. You may hear these alerts on radio or TV or read them in the newspaper. But what do they mean if you Are active outdoors Have children who play outdoors Are an older adult Have heart or lung disease This booklet will help you understand how to find out about air quality in your area and protect your health. 1 Air Quality Index AIR QUALITY INDEX Air quality directly affects our quality of life. r Why is air quality important Local air quality affects how you live and breathe. Like the weather it can change from day to day or even hour to hour. The . Environmental Protection Agency EPA and your local air quality agency have been working to make information about outdoor air quality as easy to find and understand as weather forecasts. A key tool in this effort is the Air Quality Index or AQI. EPA and local officials use the AQI to provide simple information about your local air quality how unhealthy air may affect you and how you can protect your health. What is the AQI The AQI is an index for reporting daily air quality. It tells you how clean or unhealthy your air is and what associated health effects might be a concern. The AQI focuses on health effects you may experience within a few hours or days after breathing unhealthy air. The AQI is calculated for four major air pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act groundlevel ozone particle pollution carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide. For each of these pollutants EPA has .