High Level Summary of Statistics Trend Last update: Monday, September 07, 2009
PM 10 Concentration
Particulate pollution can harm the human respiratory and cardiovascular systems, and is linked to asthma and mortality. Smaller particles are the most damaging and current targets focus on particles less than 10µm in diameter (PM10).
Coal burning, diesel combustion, construction, mining and quarrying are the major sources of particulate emissions. Road transport accounted for around 21% of UK emissions of PM10 in 2006. Between 1990 and 2006, UK emissions of PM10 fell by 50%.
The Air Quality Strategy 4 objectives for PM10 come in two stages. Stage 1 (to be met by the end of 2004): a 24-hour mean of 50µg/m3 not to be exceeded more than 35 times a year, and an annual mean of 40µg/m3. Stage 2 (to be met by the end of 2010): a 24-hour mean of 50µg/m3 not to be exceeded more than seven times a year, and an annual mean of 18µg/m3. The stage 1 annual mean objective was met at all of the automatic monitoring sites in 2008. The stage 2 annual mean objective was met at 24 of the 39 automatic monitoring sites in Scotland, including - Aberdeen and Edinburgh St. Leonards.
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Source: Scotland Air Quality Data and Statistics Database
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