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Monday, April 30, 2012 – Air quality affects how we live and breathe. So much so, you may have heard your local weather forecaster speak about an “Orange” ozone day. What you may not know is that this is part of the Air Quality Index (AQI). The AQI is the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) and local agencies' key tool for outdoor air forecasting. The AQI’s purpose is reporting daily air quality, how clean or unhealthy the air is, and the associated health effects. It focuses on health effects we may experience within a few hours or days after breathing unhealthy air. AQI is calculated for five major air pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act: ground-level ozone, particle pollution, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. For each of these pollutants, the EPA has established national air quality standards to protect public health. It is also divided into six categories by the range values of 0-500, the health concern from “Good” to “Hazardous” and the color, from Green to Maroon. Everybody is encouraged to learn more about the AQI, though this information is especially important to those with environmental and respiratory sensitivities. To learn more about the AQI, please visit http://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=aqibasics.aqi.
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