Abstract
Ambient air quality has been an important issue for humans and the environment for hundreds of years. More recently, definitive links have been identified between pollutants and adverse effects on human health and on environmental sustainability. Of particular concern since the last quarter of the twentieth century has been the presence of toxic ‘heavy metals’ in ambient air. In order to measure the concentrations of pollutants, including ‘heavy metals’, in ambient air, to assess human and environmental exposure, comply with developing legislation, and assess newly introduced abatement strategies, the UK government established nationwide air quality measurement networks in the late 1970s. The nationwide measurement of ‘heavy metals’ in ambient air began in the late 1970s, and in 1980 was developed into several national networks, aimed at different metals and different emissions sources. These networks were rationalised into the current UK Heavy Metals Monitoring Network in 2003. The data produced by the current scientific operator of the Network, the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), in 2005, marked 25 years of ambient ‘heavy metals’ measurement in the UK at a nationwide level. This paper celebrates this milestone and provides a novel and critical examination of Network operations, measured concentration levels, and trends, over the last quarter of a century.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
AQEG. (2005). Particulate Matter in the UK. London: Defra.
Bower, J., Lampert, J., & Broughton, G. (2005). Air pollution in the UK: 2004. Harwell: netcen.
Boyle, R. (1692). A general history of the air. London: Churchill.
Brimblecombe, P. (1987). The big smoke. London: Methuen.
Brown, R. J. C. (2005). Benford’s law and the screening of analytical data: the case of pollutant concentrations in ambient air. Analyst, 130, 1280–1285.
Brown, R. J. C. (2007). The use of Zipf’s law in the screening of analytical data: a step beyond Benford. Analyst, 132, 344–349.
Brown, R. J. C., & Milton, M. J. T. (2007). Developments in accurate and traceable chemical measurements. Chemical Society Reviews, 36, 904–913.
Brown, R. J. C., Shaw, A. C., & Roberts, M. R. (2006). Practical methodology for the solubility speciation of ambient dust deposits for heavy metals: application to a 6-month measurement campaign. Intern J Environ Anal Chem, 86, 453–460.
CEN. (1999). EN 12341:1999 Air quality. Determination of the PM10 fraction of suspended particulate matter. Reference method and field test procedure to demonstrate reference equivalence of measurement methods. Brussels: CEN.
CEN. (2005). EN 14902:2005, Ambient air quality-Standard method for the measurement of Pb,Cd, As and Ni in the PM10 fraction of suspended particulate matter. Brussels: CEN.
Coleman, P. J., Lee, R. G. M., Alcock, R. E., & Jones, K. C. (1997). Observations on PAH, PCB and PCDD/F trends in UK urban air, 1991–1995. Environtal Science & Technology, 31, 2120–2124.
Dollard, G. J., Dore, C. J., & Jenkin, M. E. (2001). Ambient concentrations of 1,3-butadiene in the UK. Chemico-Biological Interactions, 135, 177–206.
Duffus, J. H. (2002). “Heavy Metals” A meaningless term? Pure Appl Chem, 74, 793–807.
Environment Agency (2006). UK air pollutants: Key facts and monitoring data. Bristol: Environment Agency.
European Commission (1996). Council Directive 96/62/EC of 27 September 1996 on ambient air quality assessment and management. Official Journal of the European Union, L296, 55–63.
European Commission (1999). Council Directive 1999/30/EC of 22 April 1999 relating to limit values for sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and oxides of nitrogen, particulate matter and lead in ambient air. Official Journal of the European Union, L163, 41–60.
European Commission (2005a). Council Directive 2004/107/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 2004 relating to arsenic, cadmium, mercury, nickel and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in ambient air. Official Journal of the European Union, L023, 3–16.
European Commission (2005b). Demonstration of equivalence of ambient air monitoring methods, ec working group on guidance for the demonstration of equivalence. Brussels: European Commission.
European Commission (2007) Retrieved August 17, 2007 from http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/air/ambient.htm.
European Commission DG Environment. (2000). Ambient Air Pollution by As, Cd and Ni compounds, Position Paper. Brussels: Working group on As, Cd and Ni compounds, European Commission DG Environment.
Hall, J. (1750). An epitaph on noxious air. Gentleman’s Magazine, 20, 44–54.
Halsall, C. J., Coleman, P. J., Davis, B. J., Burnett, V., Waterhouse, K. S., & Harding-Jones, P., et al. (1994). Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the UK. Environmental Science & Technology, 28, 2380–2386.
Harris, P. M., & Smith, I. M. (2005). XGenline v8.0, CMSC/M/05/588. Teddington: NPL.
Hassanin, A., Lee, R. G. M., Johnston, A. E., & Jones, K. C. (2006). Reductions and changing patterns of ambient PCDD/Fs in the UK: Evidence and implications. Chemosphere, 65, 530–539.
HMO (1956). Ministry of housing and local government and department of health for scotland: Clean air Act. London: HMSO.
Jones, K. C., Sanders, G., Wild, S. R., Burnett, V., & Johnston, A. E. (1992). Evidence for a decline of PCBs and PAHs in rural vegetation and air in the United Kingdom. Nature, 356, 137–140.
Lee, R. G. M., Thomas, G. O., & Jones, K. C. (2004). PBDEs in the atmosphere of three locations in western Europe. Environmental Science Technology, 38, 699–706.
Netcen Air Quality Database (2007). Retrieved February 1, 2007 from http://www.aeat.co.uk/netcen/airqual/statbase/concns/pbelem2.html (this site is no longer being updated).
Phipps, D. A. (1981). Chemistry and biochemistry of trace metals in biological systems. In N. W. Lepp (Ed.) Effect of heavy metal pollution on plants. Barking: Applied Science Publishers.
Prevedourous, K., Brorstrom-Lunden, E., Halsall, C. J., Jones, K. C., Lee, R. G. M., & Sweetman, A. J. (2004). Seasonal and long-term trends in atmospheric PAH concentrations: evidence and implications. Environmental Pollution, 128, 17–27.
Smith, D. J. T., & Harrison, R. M. (1996). Concentrations, trends and vehicle source profile of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons in the UK atmosphere. Atmos. Environ., 30, 2513–2525.
TSO (2000). The Air Quality Strategy for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: Working Together for Clean Air, ISBN 0 10 145482–1. London: TSO.
UK Air Quality Archive (2007). Retrieved August 17, 2007 from http://www.airquality.co.uk/
UK National Emissions Inventory (2007) Retrieved August 17, 2007 from http://www.naei.org.uk /
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Brown, R.J.C., Yardley, R.E., Muhunthan, D. et al. Twenty-five years of nationwide ambient metals measurement in the United Kingdom: concentration levels and trends. Environ Monit Assess 142, 127–140 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-007-9914-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-007-9914-9