| Teaser Text | The planning and design of major waste management facilities has to take many different environmental considerations into account. But there’s one – and often quite a controversial one – that’s literally under the noses of everybody living in the vicinity of a proposed new plant… and that’s air quality.
Air pollution legislation is focused on reducing the adverse human health effects of air pollutants. And with the natural desire to breathe clean air, as well as concern over the number of vulnerable people whose deaths may be brought forward by air pollution, the issue is certain to remain high on the political agenda.
The European Directive on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe, which came into force in June 2008, is the main legislative driving force. As well as merging most of the existing legislation into a single directive, it also imposes on member states new air quality objectives for reducing exposure over time to PM2.5 – fine particles of less than 2.5 microns in diameter that may carry worse health implications than PM10 because of their ability to get further into the lungs. |
