Brazil launches air-quality-monitoring program

Abstract

Brazil’s Ministry of the Environment announced this month that it is launching a National Network of Air Quality Monitoring. The project will initially measure airborne particulate matter in 17 states that currently lack such monitoring. Brazil has 27 states, 10 of which currently monitor air quality in some form. The air-monitoring network will begin by monitoring particulate matter with diameters less than 10 μm and 2.5 μm starting next year, the Ministry of the Environment says. Monitoring stations will later also measure pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone, and carbon monoxide. State governments will conduct official data analysis. However, the data “will be open to any institution interested in analyzing the data,” the environment ministry tells C&EN. The estimated cost to develop and install the monitoring stations and data system is R$30 million (US$7.8 million), which will come from unspecified “environmental funds,” the ministry says. How the environment