The UHL program is the only program in the country that is part of the state's environmental lab system as opposed to being part of a state or county regulatory agency or program.

"UHL's air quality team travels over 300,000 miles per year to maintain and operate monitoring equipment at 32 sites around the state," says Jeff Wasson, program manager for air quality. "In fiscal year 2008, a minimum of two additional stations will be added to the network, and staff will continue to test new methods for the continuous measurement of particulate matter."

The ambient air section of the UHL website features detailed information and graphs to indicate air quality. From this website, visitors can view by city and in real time the level of pollutants, including sulfur dioxide, ozone, nitrogen oxides and many others. They also can check the day's predicted air quality, view levels of airborne toxic chemicals and look back at past levels by clicking on the Historical Air Quality Index Data.

The UHL air quality team gathers this data and maintains collection sites during weekly visits to some 20 counties around the state. In some areas where air quality approaches maximum levels, a combination of daily and hourly monitors are used to remotely track current conditions. UHL performs this work through a contract with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and then reports its readings directly to the EPA.

"Since the introduction of the Clean Air Act, government and industry have worked to reduce the number of pollutants being introduced into the atmosphere," Jeff explains. "In reviewing air quality data from monitoring stations throughout the country, EPA has determined that a number of the regulated pollutants (sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and particulate matter (less than) 10 microns) have been reduced to the point that monitoring networks may be reduced in order to reassign the assets to a more intensive study of ozone and PM-2.5 (particulate matter (less than) 2.5 mircons) pollution. This reassignment of assets will result in greater research into the sampling and analysis of the speciated components of PM-2.5 and the precursors to ozone formation."

To learn about ways to reduce air pollution, check out the EPA's Air Aware website at www.epa.gov/airnow/airaware. This site explains many of the causes of poor air quality, its impact and the ways to reduce it.