I can’t imagine a right more basic than the right to breathe clean air.
– Ed Begley Jr
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has good ambient air quality. The results of air quality monitoring during the reporting period show excellent results and continued compliance with National Environment Protection (Ambient Air Quality) Measure standards.
Motor vehicles are still the main source of emissions in the ACT.
Pollution from wood smoke in winter is the major source of exceedances of particulate matter (PM) standards. Smoke from bushfires and hazard reduction burns, both in the ACT and New South Wales, also causes these standards to be exceeded. The ACT Government is conducting a range of programs and campaigns to reduce the number of wood heaters in homes, and to educate people about how to best use wood heaters in an effort to reduce wood smoke from domestic heating.
The Air Quality Index website was launched by ACT Health in late 2014 to provide access to real-time air quality data and allow residents to better understand how air quality may affect them.
A new monitoring station was installed during the reporting period to meet National Environment Protection Measure standards as the ACT’s population grows.
Revised ambient air quality reporting measures are being considered at a national level. The likely updates are primarily concerned with PM and seek to establish variations to the standards.