Abstract
To date, more than 2800 different anthropogenic air pollutants have been identified in ambient air samples; more than ninety per cent are organic compounds (including organo-metals), and less than 10% are inorganic pollutants, sixty per cent of the pollutants identified are present in gaseous or aerosol form (Graedel et al. 1986). Fuel combustion sources, especially motor vehicles, release about some 500 different components. However, ambient air levels have been determined for only a small fraction of the known pollutants and health and ecological effects data are available for only some 200 pollutants (WHO/Euro 1987, 1996). This has led to attempts to define air pollution indicators or indices for air quality, where a relatively small set of parameters, representing a large number of air pollutants, reflect relevant health and ecological impacts, and are related to major emission sources.
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© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Wiederkehr, P., Yoon, SJ. (1998). Air Quality Indicators. In: Fenger, J., Hertel, O., Palmgren, F. (eds) Urban Air Pollution — European Aspects. Environmental Pollution, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9080-8_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9080-8_23
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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