What is Slough doing about air pollution?
Every local authority in England and Wales has a statutory duty to review local air quality under the Environment Act 1995. The aim of the review process is to identify any areas where the government’s National Air Quality Standards and Objectives for 7 key pollutants are likely to be exceeded, to declare any such areas an ‘Air Quality Management Area’, and then to prepare action plans to show what can be done to improve air quality in these areas. The main cause of the increased levels in Slough is due to road traffic, and in particular motorway traffic. Slough uses automatic and non-automatic ways of measuring pollution, for the following the air pollutants in and around Slough: • Oxides of nitrogen (NOx) – produced mainly by traffic and industry • Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) – produced mainly by traffic and industry • Sulphur dioxide (SO2) – produced mainly by industry • Benzene – mainly caused by traffic Particles (PM10 PM 2.5 and PM1.0) – produced mainly by traffic and industry • Ozone
