Name: ________________________________________________________Date_______________Period:_________

Air Quality Exploration Guide

Introduction

1. What is the AQI?

2. What are the five major pollutants regulated by the clean air act? Circle the two that pose the
greatest risk to people in this country.

3. What does an AQI of 100 mean? What does it mean if the AQI is over 100?

4. Describe the levels of the AQI below. Be sure to look at the descriptions on the page after the
table in the guide to find out what each level means in terms of health.

Description of
quality level

Go here: https://www.epa.gov/ozone-pollution-and-your-patients-health/what-ozone

https://www.airnow.gov/education/students/air-pollution-and-health/

https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/air-quality/ozone-troposphere

https://document.airnow.gov/air-quality-guide-for-ozone.pdf

5. What is ozone?
6. Compare “good’ ozone and “bad” ozone by completing the following chart:

Where is it found? What does it do? (Briefly here- more detail below)

Good Ozone

Bad ozone

7. Explain what is happening to the “good” ozone:

a. What is happening to it?

b. What chemicals are causing this (be more specific than ODS)?

c. For what purpose(s) were these chemicals used?

d. What happens to the chemicals when they interact with intense UV rays from the sun?

e. The molecules released from the breakdown of the ODS act as catalysts in the
ozone-destroying reaction. What does this mean? (You must use your brains for this one- it
does not explicitly say in the text.)

f. Even though many ODS have been phased out several decades ago, why are they still causing
problems with the ozone layer?

g. What are the consequences of the depletion of good ozone?

h. What has been done about the depletion of good ozone?

8. What causes “bad” ozone:

 a. Write the process that creates ozone as a chemical reaction:

b. What are the main sources of the reactants in the ozone-forming reaction?

c. When is bad ozone more of a concern, and why?

d. Identify effects of acute and chronic exposure to ozone:

e. Who is at increased risk of and from increased exposure to ozone?

f. How does bad ozone affect the non-human environment?

g. What is being done about bad ozone?

Go here: https://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=aqibasics.particle to learn about particle pollution:

9. What is particle pollution?

10. Fine particles:

a. How big are they?

b. Sources:

11. Coarse dust particles:

a. How big are they?

b. Sources:

12. What are the health risks of particle pollution exposure?

 13. Who is most at risk?

14. What are the environmental impacts of particle pollution?

Go here: https://www.epa.gov/co-pollution and scroll down to Carbon monoxide to learn

about…….Carbon Monoxide

15. What is carbon monoxide?

16. Vehicle exhaust contributes up to _______________ of all carbon monoxide emissions nationwide
and up to ________________ in cities.

17. When are carbon monoxide levels typically highest? __________________.

18. What is the main health risk of carbon monoxide exposure?

19. What two groups are most at risk?

Same link as above: Sulfur Dioxide

20. What is sulfur dioxide?

21. What are the two major sources of sulfur dioxide and where are they located?

22. What are two health risks of sulfur dioxide exposure?

23. Who is most at risk?

Air pollutant analysis

24. Which parts or systems of the body seem to be most susceptible to the effects of poor air quality?
 25. Which segments of a population are most at risk from exposure to air pollution?

Trends in Air Pollution

Go here: https://gispub.epa.gov/air/trendsreport/2017/#welcome to access the moderately annoying
scroll-a-thon interactive report.

1. Declining National Air Pollutant Concentration Averages:

a. What is the graph showing? (Pay attention to the y-axis!)

b. Describe the general trend of the pollutants shown in the graph.

c. Click on the names of pollutants in the legend to hide all of them except lead (Pb).

d. Describe the trend in lead concentration. (Use the axis on the right side).

e. Remove the line for lead and add the others back. Which pollutants have increased by
the greatest amount (excluding lead)?

f. Which pollutants have decreased the least?

g. Why do you think the graph starts in 1990? (What happened in 1990 that make it a logical
starting point to display this data?)

National Emissions By Source Category

What are the four source categories? What types of activities/facilities are included in those categories?

a. What are the main sources of:

i. CO:

ii. NOx:

iii. VOCs:
 b. Click on the three dots in the upper right corner, then on the Show Totals box. Which
three pollutants have the highest emissions, in tons?
Air Pollution Can Affect Our Health and Environment in Many Ways
a. What are the health and environmental effects of lead?

b. What are the environmental effects of the oxides of nitrogen and sulfur (affectionately known as
NOx and SOx)?

Economic Growth and Cleaner Air -Describe the overall message conveyed by the graph and
accompanying information.

Criteria Pollutant Trends Show Clean Air Progress.

a. Compare the trend in ozone 8-hour concentration with NOx and VOC emissions (shown in the
graph below ozone). Explain why there is a correlation between the two.

b. Use the dropdown box to select Lead (Maximum Rolling 3-month average). Describe the change
in lead concentration.

c. What actions contributed to the dramatic change in lead concentration?

Unhealthy Air Quality Days Trending Down - Describe the trend shown in the graph. (If you tap on the
graph it will zoon in and give you a link to a different site. Just click off of the graph to make it go away.)

Air Quality in Nonattainment Areas Improves

a. What are nonattainment areas?
 b. What must nonattainment areas do? Who is responsible for implementing these plans?

Keep reading until you get to the end.