National Ambient Air Quality Standards

Abstract

As part of the Clean Air Act, the federal government has established National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) which attempt to define the desired, or permissible, maximum levels of pollutants in the air throughout the country. The pollutants which are used to define the quality of air are termed the criteria pollutants, namely, particulate matter, sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, lead, and photochemical oxidants (ozone), as listed in Table 3-1. Additional pollutants are regulated under the Clean Air Act; however, clean air is defined in terms of only these six criteria pollutants. The NAAQS for criteria pollutants is listed in Table 3-2 along with the standard for nonmethane hydrocarbons.KeywordsNone NoneNitrogen DioxidePublic HearingCriterion PollutantPollutant Standard IndexThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.