The Air Quality Standards Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007

Made

Coming into operation

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PART 1 — General

Citation and commencement

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Definitions and interpretation

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Responsibility for implementation of the Air Framework Directive

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PART 2 — Group A and Group B pollutants and ozone

CHAPTER 1 — Air Quality Standards

Preliminary and application

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Zones and agglomerations

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Air quality standards

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CHAPTER 2 — Attainment of air quality standards

General attainment measures

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Improvement plans

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Other improvement measures

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CHAPTER 3 — Maintenance of air quality standards and action plans

Maintenance of air quality standards

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Action plans

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CHAPTER 4 — Assessment

Duty to assess air quality

12

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Assessment methods

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Fixed and combined measurement

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Sampling points

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Other assessment requirements

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PART 3 — Other pollutants and background monitoring

Measurement of PM2.5

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Measurement of ozone precursor substances

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Monitoring of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

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Background monitoring

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PART 4 — Public information and participation

General requirements

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Information regarding zones

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Information on concentrations

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Information on breach of alert or information threshold

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Information on breach of air quality standards

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Ozone annual report

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Information on action and improvement plans

27

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Public participation in improvement plans

28

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PART 5 — Final and miscellaneous provisions

Collation of information etc

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Revocations and savings

30

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SCHEDULE 1 — Air Quality standards

PART 1 — Limit values for Group A pollutants

	Averaging period	Limit value	Attainment date
Limit value for the protection of human health	Calendar year	5 μg/m³	1st January 2010
	Averaging period	Limit value
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Limit value for the protection of human health	Maximum daily 8-hour mean	10 mg/m³
	Averaging period	Limit value
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Annual limit value for the protection of human health	Calendar year	0.5 μg/m³
	Averaging period	Limit value	Attainment date
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Hourly limit value for the protection of human health	1 hour	200 μg/m³ NO2, not to be exceeded more than 18 times a calendar year	1st January 2010
Annual limit value for the protection of human health	Calendar year	40 μg/m³ NO2	1st January 2010
Annual limit value for the protection of vegetation	Calendar year	30 μg/m³ NOx
	Averaging period	Limit value
---	---	---
24-hour limit value for the protection of human health	24 hours	50 μg/m³ PM₁₀, not to be exceeded more than 35 times a calendar year
Annual limit value for the protection of human health	Calendar year	40 μg/m³ PM₁₀
	Averaging period	Limit value
---	---	---
Hourly limit value for the protection of human health	1 hour	350 μg/m³, not to be exceeded more than 24 times a calendar year
Daily limit value for the protection of human health	24 hours	125 μg/m³, not to be exceeded more than 3 times a calendar year
Limit value for the protection of ecosystems	Calendar year and winter (1st October to 31st March)	20 μg/m³

PART 2 — Margins of tolerance for benzene and nitrogen dioxide

Start of period during which the margin applies	End of period during which the margin applies	Benzene	Nitrogen dioxide (hourly limit value for the protection of human health)	Nitrogen dioxide (annual limit value for the protection of human health)
Coming into force of these Regulations	31st December 2007	3 μg/m³	30 μg/m³	6 μg/m³
1st January 2008	31st December 2008	2 μg/m³	20 μg/m³	4 μg/m³
1st January 2009	31st December 2009	1 μg/m³	10 μg/m³	2 μg/m³

PART 3 — Target values for Group B pollutants

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PART 4 — Target values and long-term objectives for ozone

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SCHEDULE 2 — Information to be included in an Improvement Plan

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SCHEDULE 3 — Alert and information thresholds

PART 1 — Alert thresholds for nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide

Nitrogen dioxide	400 μg/m³ measured over three consecutive hours at locations representative of air quality over at least 100 km² or an entire zone or agglomeration, whichever is the smaller
Sulphur dioxide	500 μg/m³ measured over three consecutive hours at locations representative of air quality over at least 100 km² or an entire zone, whichever is the smaller

PART 2 — Alert and information thresholds for ozone

	Parameter	Threshold
(1) For the purposes of regulation 11 (action plans), exceedance of the 1 hour average in respect of the alert threshold is to be measured or predicted for three consecutive hours.	(1) For the purposes of regulation 11 (action plans), exceedance of the 1 hour average in respect of the alert threshold is to be measured or predicted for three consecutive hours.	(1) For the purposes of regulation 11 (action plans), exceedance of the 1 hour average in respect of the alert threshold is to be measured or predicted for three consecutive hours.
Alert threshold	1 hour average[^f01003]	240 μg/m³
Information threshold	1 hour average	180 μg/m³

SCHEDULE 4 — Assessment thresholds

PART 1 — Assessment thresholds for Group A pollutants

	Annual average
Upper assessment threshold	70% of limit value (3.5 μg/m³)
Lower assessment threshold	40% of limit value (2 μg/m³)
	Eight-hour average
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Upper assessment threshold	70% of limit value (7 mg/m³)
Lower assessment threshold	50% of limit value (5 mg/m³)
	Annual average
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Upper assessment threshold	70% of limit value (0.35 μg/m³)
Lower assessment threshold	50% of limit value (0.25 μg/m³)
	Hourly limit value for the protection of human health (NO2)
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Upper assessment threshold	70% of limit value (140 μg/m³), not to be exceeded more than 18 times in any calendar year
Lower assessment threshold	50% of limit value (100 μg/m³), not to be exceeded more than 18 times in any calendar year
	24-hour average
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Upper assessment threshold	60% of limit value (30 μg/m³), not to be exceeded more than 7 times in any calendar year
Lower assessment threshold	40% of limit value (20 μg/m³), not to be exceeded more than 7 times in any calendar year
	Health protection
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Upper assessment threshold	60% of 24-hour limit value (75 μg/m³), not to be exceeded more than 3 times in any calendar year
Lower assessment threshold	40% of 24-hour limit value (50 μg/m³), not to be exceeded more than 3 times in any calendar year

PART 2 — Assessment thresholds for Group B pollutants

Upper assessment threshold	60% of target value (3.6 ng/m³)
Lower assessment threshold	40% of target value (2.4 ng/m³)
Upper assessment threshold	60% of target value (0.6 ng/m³)
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Lower assessment threshold	40% of target value (0.4 ng/m³)
Upper assessment threshold	60% of target value (3 ng/m³)
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Lower assessment threshold	40% of target value (2 ng/m³)
Upper assessment threshold	70% of target value (14 ng/m³)
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Lower assessment threshold	50% of target value (10 ng/m³)

PART 3 — Determination of representative concentrations

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2

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SCHEDULE 5 — Minimum number of sampling points

PART 1 — Group A pollutants: human health based limit values and alert thresholds

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Point sources

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PART 2 — Group A pollutants: limit values for the protection of ecosystems or vegetation

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PART 3 — Group B pollutants

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Point sources

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PART 4 — Ozone

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PART 5 — Ozone: minimum number of sampling points for fixed measurements for zones attaining the long-term objectives

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SCHEDULE 6 — Location of sampling points

PART 1 — Macroscale siting for Group A pollutants

Sampling points for the protection of human health

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Protection of ecosystems and vegetation

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PART 2 — Macroscale siting for Group B pollutants

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PART 3 — Macroscale siting for ozone

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PART 4 — Microscale siting

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PART 5 — Documentation and review of site selection

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SCHEDULE 7 — Requirements for assessment methods other than fixed measurement

PART 1 — Group A pollutants

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PART 2 — Group B pollutants

Requirements for air quality models

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Requirements for objective estimation techniques

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Standardisation

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PART 3 — Ozone and ozone precursor substances

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SCHEDULE 8 — Data quality objectives

PART 1 — Group A pollutants and PM2.5

Group A pollutants (other than benzene and carbon monoxide) and PM2.5

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Benzene and carbon monoxide

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PART 2 — Group B pollutants, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and total gaseous mercury

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PART 3 — Ozone and nitrogen dioxide assessed at ozone sampling points

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SCHEDULE 9 — Reference methods

PART 1 — Group A pollutants

	Reference method
Sampling and measurement of benzene	EN 14662: 2005, Parts 1, 2 and 3 ‘Ambient air quality – Standard method for measurement of benzene concentrations’
Analysis of carbon monoxide	EN 14626: 2005 ‘Ambient air quality – Standard method for the measurement of the concentration of carbon monoxide by nondispersive infrared spectroscopy’
Sampling of lead	The same reference method as for PM₁₀
Analysis of lead	ISO 9855: 1993 Ambient air — Determination of the particulate lead content of aerosols collected in filters. Atomic absorption spectroscopy method
Analysis of nitrogen dioxide and oxides of nitrogen	ISO 7996: 1985 Ambient air — determination of the mass concentrations of nitrogen oxides — chemiluminescence method
Sampling and measurement of PM₁₀	EN 12341: 1998 “Air Quality – Field Test Procedure to Demonstrate Reference Equivalence of Sampling Methods for the PM₁₀ fraction of particulate matter”. The measurement principle is based on the collection on a filter of the PM₁₀ fraction of ambient particulate matter and the gravimetric mass determination
Analysis of sulphur dioxide	ISO/FDIS 10498 (Standard in draft) Ambient air — determination of sulphur dioxide — ultraviolet fluorescence method

PART 2 — Group B pollutants in ambient air

	Reference method
Sampling of Group B pollutants other than benzo(a)pyrene	The same method as for sampling and measurement of PM₁₀
Analysis of Group B pollutants other than benzo(a)pyrene	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’
Benzo(a)pyrene concentrations	A method based on manual PM₁₀ sampling equivalent to EN 12341

PART 3 — Ozone

	Reference method
Measurement of ozone	EN 14625: 2005 ‘Ambient air quality – Standard method for the measurement of the concentration of ozone by ultraviolet photometry’

PART 4 — Other reference methods

	Reference method
Sampling and analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in ambient air	A method based on manual PM₁₀ sampling equivalent to EN 12341
Sampling and analysis of mercury in ambient air	An automated method based on Atomic Absorption Spectrometry or Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry
Sampling and analysis of the deposition of Group B pollutants, mercury, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons	A method based on the exposition of cylindrical deposit gauges with standardised dimensions

SCHEDULE 10 — Ozone precursor substances

Objectives

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Substances

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Reference methods

5

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Monitoring sites

6

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SCHEDULE 11 — Public information where alert or information thresholds are exceeded

PART 1 — Alert thresholds for nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide

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PART 2 — Alert and information thresholds for ozone

2

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SCHEDULE 12 — Collation of information and criteria for aggregating data and calculating statistical parameters

PART 1 — Information to be submitted to the Commission

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PART 2 — Criteria for aggregating data and calculating statistical parameters

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Signed

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of the Environment on 30th April 2007.

Wesley Shannon — A senior officer of the Department of the Environment

Explanatory note

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Footnotes

[^f00001]: 1972 c.68

[^f00002]: S.I. 1988/785

[^f00003]: 1954 c.33 (N.I.)

[^f00004]: This standard is issued by the European Committee for Standardisation (36 rue de Stassart, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium)

[^f00005]: OJ No.L296, 21.11.96, p.55

[^f00006]: OJ No L 296, 21.11.96, p.55

[^f00007]: OJ No L 163, 29.06.99, p.41,as amended by Commission Decision 2001/744/EC, OJ No L 278, 23.10.01, p.35

[^f00008]: OJ No L 313, 31.12.00, p.12

[^f00009]: OJ No L 67, 09.03.02, p.14

[^f00010]: OJ No L 23, 26.01.05, p.3

[^f00011]: OJ No L 257, 10.10.96, p.26

[^f00012]: The Directive is implemented by The Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003 (S.R. 2003 No.46 as amended by S.R. 2003 No.390, S.R. 2003 No.496, S.I. 2003/3311, S.R. 2004 No.36, S.R. 2004 No.297, S.R. 2004 No.507, S.R. 2005 No.285, S.R. 2005 No.300, S.R. 2005 No.454 and S.R. 2006 No.98)

[^f00013]: OJ No L 87, 25.03.04, p.50

[^f00014]: S.R. 2002 No. 94 amended by S.R. 2002 No.357 and S.R. 2004 No. 514

[^f00015]: S.R. 2003 No. 240 amended by S.R. 2004 No. 514

[^f00016]: S.R. 2002 No. 94 amended by S.R. 2002 No. 357 and S.R. 2004 No. 514

[^f00017]: S.R. 2003 No. 240 amended by S.R. 2004 No. 514

[^f00018]: S.R. 1990 No. 145 amended by S.R. 1994 No. 339 and S.R. 2996 No. 23 in relation to regulation 7

[^f00019]: OJ No L 125, 18.05.94, p.1

[^f00020]: Copies of International Standards Organisation publications may be purchased from the British Standards Institution (‘BSI’) Sales Department either by telephone (0208 996 9001) or by post from the BSI, Standards House, 389 Chiswick High Road, London W4 4AL, http://www.bsi-global.com

[^f00021]: European Committee for Standardisation (“CEN”) publication copies may be obtained from CEN at 36, Rue de Stassart, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium http://www.cenorm.be

[^f00022]: OJ L 35, 05.02.97, p.14

Editorial notes

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