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Abstract: At Creative Methods, we try
to “step outside the box” and look at fundamental issues in our world with
new perspective. Under the issue Air Quality, we present EPA data as
maps and gradesheets that grade US counties A to F for 21 EPA measures of air
quality. The topics of air pollution and environmental health are serious
issues in the US, and result in pollution health effects including headache,
respiratory impairment, neurological impairment, mental impairment, asthma,
lung disease, chronic fatigue, immune system dysfunction, premature aging, and
reduced longevity. Environmental science monitors air pollutant emissions,
as well as criteria air pollutant concentrations through ambient monitoring.
The US Air Quality Gradebook (“AirGrades”) grades both emissions and
ambient concentrations on maps and gradesheets, and assigns resultant composite
scores to US counties. Air pollutants include carbon monoxide, CO; lead,
Pb; nitrogen dioxide, NO2; nitrogen oxides, NOx; volatile organic compounds, VOC;
ozone, O3;
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particulate matter smaller than 10 micrometers in
size, PM10; particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers in size, PM2.5;
ammonia, NH3; sulphur dioxide, SO2; hazardous air pollutants, HAP; diesel emissions;
and acrolein. Source sheets such as these for South Dakota show important
air pollution emissions. Point sources include electric power
generating facilities and industrial plants. Area source emissions include
wildfires, forest fires, open burning, permitted burning, structure fires, and
fugitive dust. Mobile sources include highway and off-road vehicles with
internal combustion engines such as automobiles, trucks, trains, airplanes,
snowmobiles, and all terrain vehicles (ATVs). The maps, gradesheets, and
source sheets demonstrate that clean air is at a premium in the US. Sites
presenting issues on health and the environment related to those presented under
the topic Air Grades by Creative Methods at CreativeMethods.com are Scorecard
at Scorecard.com and the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, at EPA.gov.
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