Air Quality Lab
Midori Kirby, Connor McCreedy, Abby Samuel, Skye Files
12/10/2015
INTRODUCTION:
The Clean Air Act was put in place to set standards for the amount of allowable pollution
in the atmosphere. It has significantly reduce some major pollutants, but because of an
increase in human population and cars, some pollutants such as nitrogen oxide and
carbon have not seen as drastic of a result.
HYPOTHESIS:
The air quality of the school is somewhat healthy, however lower quality may result from
pollutants in the parking lot.
DATA:
Lichens
Tree diameter: 6inches
Crustose lichens occurred mostly towards the bottom of the trees.
Score: 3- crustose lichens only
Ozone
Ozone #: 10
Ozone in ppb: 130
Particulate:
Overall: none-very light
CONCLUSION:
The air quality was lower than predicted because the lichen test revealed that air quality
was poor. The ozone test showed that there was a high amount of ozone in the air and
that there was a high sulfur dioxide concentration as well.
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POST-LAB:
The ozone concentration for 23% relative humidity with a Schoenbein number of
2 is 120ppb; 48% relative humidity is 60ppb; and for 81% relative humidity is 10ppb.
The Schoenbein number for 28% relative humidity at 100 ppb is 2; for 40% relative
humidity is 3; and for 72% relative humidity is 6.
The wind direction was southwest and that could affect air quality because the wind
could've brought pollutants from the southwest resulting in increased ozone
concentration.
The Schoenbein paper is not reliable because the website says that their air pollution is
good, however the air quality by the school did not correlate and was not very good.
Also, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has a larger portion of land to
base it on, plus their data deals with cities in California.
5. The UV index was 3, and UV is related to ozone due to the fact that ozone is formed
when UV light reacts with hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere.
6. The Triangle exceeded the 80 ppb average by a lot; but the measurements did not
accurately represent Wake County because the data was taken in a parking lot, so
more emissions could have reacted with UV light.
7. The areas in the northeast and in California are non-attainment areas because of the
higher amounts of industry in those parts. For example, factories for northeastern
industry increase air pollution and decrease air quality.
8. Particulate matter was later added to the Clean Air Act because the particles are so
small that they didn't have to technology to recognize that it exists until the 1990s.