Frequently Asked Questions
These frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are the MCIG’s response to a series of questions that have been asked by the Moranbah community.
How do you know if air quality is declining, maintaining or improving?
Maintaining a network of monitoring stations identifies trends over time, such as changes that may be due to demographic, climatic, cultural or land-use changes. Results from monitoring can be used to develop strategies to reduce the impacts of air pollutants and measure how effective implementation of such strategies has been.
Do Air Quality Guidelines exist for Queensland?
Air quality measurements are compared against air quality standards contained in the Commonwealth National Environment Protection (Ambient Air Quality) Measure (Air NEPM) to assess whether pollutant levels could harm public health.
The Queensland Government Environmental Protection (Air) Policy 2008 (EPP(Air)) is also used:
How do you measure air quality?
Air quality can be measured in a number of ways. These include: dust fall; High and low volume air samples; Tapered element oscillating microbalance; and, monitoring aerosols.
Learn more about these techniques »
PM2.5
PM2.5 describes particulate matter 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter. PM2.5 is generally described as fine particles. By way of comparison, a human hair is about 100 microns, so roughly 40 fine particles could be placed on its width.
PM10
PM10 is a particulate matter that is 10 micrometers or less in diameter.
Further information on particulate matter »
TSP
Total Suspended Particulates (TSP) is a measurement used to determine the total number of suspended particulate matter present in a measured volume of atmosphere. TSP is measured using a High Volume Sampler.
How is air quality managed in other parts of Australia?
New South Wales
The NSW Government Environmental Protection Agency has numerous initiatives and programmes in place to manage and regulate air pollutants in NSW.