WHAT TYPES OF AIR POLLUTION ARE TRACKED & HOW?
Information on air pollution can be somewhat confusing because it is collected in different ways by different agencies on both the federal and state level. First, there are different lists of chemicals of concern for both the state environmental authority – the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MADEP), and the federal agency -the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Each of the agencies is tasked with tracking air pollution and does so through multiple reports and tracking methods. For the most part, the data the state collects from air pollution sources is provided to the EPA for their use. However, differences remain in what information is collected, how it is collected and how often, and how the information is made publicly available. In addition, it should be noted that most of the data used by the agencies and thus used by the researchers for this report is a result of facilities self-reporting their quantity of air emissions, or a result of modeling by the r
