TÍTULO SÉPTIMO VIVIENDA

ACS American Cancer Society

Air pollution

episode A period of elevated air pollution, usually lasting up to several days, extending over a large geographical area

Air quality index

(UK) A ten-point scale with four bands indicating ‘Low’, ‘Moderate’, ‘High’ and ‘Very High’ levels of air pollution. It is used to communicate information about real-time and forecast levels of outdoor air pollution

Air Quality

Objective Policy targets generally expressed as a maximum ambient concentration to be achieved, either without exception or with a permitted number of exceedances, within a specified timescale. The Objectives are set out in the UK Government’s Air Quality Strategy for the key air pollutants

Air Quality Standards

Concentrations recorded over a given time period, which are considered to be acceptable in terms of what is scientifically known about the effects of each pollutant on health and on the

environment. They can also be used as a benchmark to indicate whether air pollution is getting better or worse

Air Quality Strategy The Air Quality Strategy for England, Scotland, Wales and

Northern Ireland describes the plans drawn up by the Government and the Devolved Administrations to improve and protect ambient air quality in the UK in the medium-term. The Strategy sets

Objectives for the main air pollutants to protect health

Alert threshold A level beyond which there is a risk to human health from brief exposure for the population as a whole

Ambient air Outdoor air

AURN Automatic Urban and Rural Network

Black smoke (BS) Non-reflective (dark) particulate matter, measured by the smoke stain method. it provides a method used for monitoring the concentration of particles in the air, originating from the era of domestic coal burning in cities. The method relies upon collecting particles via a size-selective sampling head which are then deposited onto a filter paper which becomes blackened – the degree of this blackening provides the basis of the particle measurement

CAFE Clean Air for Europe

Carbon monoxide (CO)

Cardiovascular disease

Disorders of the heart and circulatory system

Chamber studies Studies involving the exposure of volunteers to controlled concentrations of gases or aerosols

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Long-standing disease of the airways of the lung associated with increased production of phlegm and shortness of breath and often caused by cigarette smoking

COMEAP Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants

Confidence interval If it is possible to define two statistics t1 and t2 (functions of sample

values only) such that, θ being a parameter under estimate, P (t1 ≤ θ > t2) = α

where α is some fixed probability (e.g. 0.95 or 95%), the interval between t1 and t2 is called a confidence interval. The assertion that

θ lies in this interval will be true, on average, in a proportion α of the cases when the assertion is made. For example, 95% confidence intervals are calculated in such a way that, in the absence of bias, 95% of such intervals will include the parameter that is being estimated

CSAS COMEAP Standards Advisory Subgroup

EPAQS Expert Panel on Air Quality Standards

Epidemiological studies

Investigations of diseases conducted at a population level

European (EU) Directives

The European Union has been legislating to control emissions of air pollutants and to establish air quality objectives since the early 1970s. European Directives on ambient air quality require the UK to undertake air quality assessment, and to report the findings to the European Commission on an annual basis

EU Limit Values EU Limit values are legally binding EU parameters that must not be exceeded. Limit Values are set for individual pollutants and are made up of a concentration value, an averaging time over which it is to be measured, the number of exceedances allowed per year, if any, and a date by which it must be achieved. Some pollutants have more than one Limit Value covering different endpoints or averaging times

EU target values Used in some EU Directives and are set out in the same way as limit values. They are to be attained where possible by taking all

necessary measures not entailing disproportionate costs

Euro Standards European regulation of pollutant emissions from road vehicles

FDMS The Filter Dynamics Measurement System (FDMS) monitors the core and volatile fractions of airborne particulate matter

MAAPE Advisory Group on the Medical Aspects of Air Pollution Episodes

Meta-analysis A statistical method used to combine the results of a number of individual studies

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2)

A gas produced during combustion by the oxidation of atmospheric nitrogen

Ozone (O3) A strongly oxidant gas produced from oxygen

Particle A minute portion of matter – frequently a very small solid or liquid particle (or droplet) of micrometre or nanometre dimensions

Parts per billion Parts per billion, ppb, describes the concentration of a pollutant in air in terms of volume ratio. A concentration of 1 ppb means that for every billion (109_{) units of air, there is one unit of pollutant}

present

PM Particulate matter

PM2.5 Mass per cubic metre of particles passing through the inlet of a size

selective sampler with a transmission efficiency of 50% at an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 micrometres

PM10 As above, with 10 micrometres

Relative risk (RR) Relative risk is used in this report to compare age-specific death rates in two groups that differ in terms of exposure or other characteristics, e.g. in terms of their average annual exposure to PM2.5. It is derived as the ratio of age-specific death rates in the

two groups (assuming other factors are equal) because exposure is expected to increase age-specific death rates by some multiplicative factor, to be estimated from epidemiological studies. Relative risk is a measure of that factor

Six Cities Study A long-term cohort study conducted in the USA

Sulphur dioxide (SO2)

An acidic gas formed by oxidation of sulphur found in fossil fuel

TEOM Tapered element oscillating microbalance. A method of measuring mass of particles in real time

Time-series studies Studies of the health effects of short-term exposure to air pollution. Time-series studies estimate the influence of daily variations in air pollutant concentrations on deaths (mortality) and illness by linking daily counts of health events (mortality, hospital admissions, visits to emergency departments, etc) within a geographically defined population with daily measures of air pollution and other variables

Trigger

concentrations Hourly pollution measurements that indicate a period of ‘Moderate’, ‘High’ or ‘Very High’ air pollution may be taking place or is likely to happen soon (see also air quality index)

TSP Total suspended particles

UNECE United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

µm Abbreviation for micrometre or micron (a unit of length). 1 µm = one thousandth of a millimetre

µg m–3 _{Micrograms per cubic metre. 1 µg = 1 millionth of a gram}

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