Evaluating Air Pollution Problems

Abstract

The materials which produce air pollution are many and varied and the instruments used to measure them are as varied as the pollutants themselves. Hundreds of instruments have been developed, and each can be used to gain information about a particular facet of the problem. The Encyclopedia of Instrumentation for Industrial Hygiene furnished an excellent description of air pollution instruments in use as of 1956. This report was brought up to date with the 1960 publication ''Air Sampling Instruments for Evaluation of Atmospheric Contaminants,'' which shows that 60 additional instruments have become available during the past 4 years. When choosing equipment to make air quality measurements it is necessary to estimate the possible pollutants as well as the degree of accuracy and thoroughness with which they must be measured. Availability and reliability of equipment, cost of operation, and skill required for satisfactory results are also factors to be considered in equipment choice. Air pollution investigations have not yet reached the point where standard measuring equipment is used, although certain types of measurements and techniques are frequently used in evaluating certain qualities of the atmosphere. The following discussion deals with some of the more widely used devices and techniques for measuringmore » specific types of air pollutants. 17 references.« less