Question: How do you test the air quality?

Sarah Naylor answered on 16 Mar 2018:

There are two ways we do this, either using automatic analysers which draw air into the machine, analyse the content and then tell us the concentration of the pollutant we are trying to measure (usually nitrogen dioxide). These are the most accurate way of analysing air quality but the equipment is very expensive and the monitors need an electrical supply so you can’t put them just anywhere. As such, we also use a cheaper method called diffusion tubes which are small portable tubes made of plastic and around 7cm in length. They can be attached to lampposts and don’t need an electricity supply but they don’t automatically tell us what the air quality is like as they need to be sent off to a lab for analysis.
I used to work for Doncaster council who was part of the Care4Air group. If you go on their website they can provide alittle bit more detail about monitoring our air: http://www.care4air.org/air-pollutants/measuring-air-pollutants/