Monitoring ambient air quality for health impact assessment

Air quality assessment is frequently driven by the need to determine whether a standard or guideline has been exceeded. This overshadows another objective of air quality assessment: providing the information needed to estimate population exposure to air pollution and the effects on the health of the population. Consequently, most existing air quality monitoring systems do not fully address population exposure to toxic air pollution. Given the importance of these data for air quality management, this report describes strategies and methods for providing information on ambient air quality that is adequate for health impact assessment.