Air Quality – Draft Goals and Indicators
SUSTAINABILITY GOALS (Outcomes we wish to see in NJ):
1.0 Outdoor air quality is healthy for all segments of the human population and for the natural
environment.
2.0 Indoor air quality poses no significant direct or indirect health threats for all segments of
the population (in particular sensitive populations, such as children, the elderly, and the
immune-compromised).
Secondary objectives, addressing crosscutting principles:
3.0 Equity objective:

Point, non-point (e.g., diesel traffic), and indoor sources of air pollutants meet
standards at not only statewide, but municipal and neighborhood levels.
Principles of equity demand that environmental harms from air pollution do not
disproportionately burden any social group defined by class, race, location, age or other factor.
Since in NJ, as elsewhere, urban neighborhoods that are highly exposed to multiple sources of
air pollution (diesel trucks, siting of polluting facilities, etc.) also tend to have high
concentrations of poverty and of residents of color, local level, geographically-specific
indicators are necessary to reveal and communicate these disparities.
4.0 Climate change mitigation objective:

Reduction in use of fossil fuels for energy.
Now regulated by the EPA under the Clean Air Act, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases
are air pollutants that will have increasingly grave effects on New Jersey’s health and
environment. However, both the sources and the effects of these pollutants register at a global
scale, and the direct impact of local sources is not felt locally. Nonetheless, global sustainability
demands a reduction in GHG emissions in New Jersey at every scale and location, which will
bring about concomitant reductions in emissions of the other harmful by-products of
combustion.
This imperative is addressed, and measured, under the energy goal. An improved transportation
network, reflected under Built Environment goals, will also mitigate some of the key sources of
both GHG and other sources of air pollution.
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Scale: New Jersey’s air quality is much affected by external sources of pollution: at the global
scale as noted, and also regionally, from mercury-laden emissions from coal-fired plants located
in other states. Within state boundaries, stationary (e.g., power plants and generators) and
mobile (e.g., cars, trucks, airplanes) sources of pollution interact with weather patterns to
distribute fumes, particulate matter, and deposition unevenly across landscapes and
neighborhoods. Thus, indicators at multiple scales are required. Ultimately, in order to surface
equity issues, municipalities should seek data neighborhood-level, but the county level may still
suffice to monitor disparities for state-level analyses.
INDICATORS
1.0 Outdoor air quality standards:
1.1 Index of criteria pollutants
Target: National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for criteria pollutants1are achieved
throughout New Jersey, [and ambient air quality and the migration and deposition of air
pollutants pose no significant direct or indirect health threats to sensitive populations and
natural resources].

*Number of days/year that National Ambient Air Quality Standards are exceeded for any of
criteria pollutants (i.e., becomes unhealthy for sensitive groups)
 Number of days that AQI > 100: year-on-year % change, 3 year rolling average
1.2 Ozone and PM 2.5
*Ground-level ozone and airborne particles are the two pollutants that pose the
greatest threat to human health in this country.
Target: NAAQS standards are met throughout the state for ozone and fine particulate

Number of days per year that ozone and PM 2.5, respectively, exceed the NAAQS
standard for sensitive groups.
2.0 Indoor air quality
The air we breathe in our homes, workplaces and other indoor spaces contains pollutants that
leak in from outside and mingle with fumes (e.g., from paints, glues, and building materials) and
biological contaminants (e.g., mold) originating within the four walls. Indoor air quality is not
monitored by any agency, as doing so would entail extremely high expense, raise major privacy
concerns, and lack applicability across sites. It is very difficult, therefore, to monitor at the
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criteria pollutants: ground-level ozone, carbon monoxide, particulate matter (PM-10 and PM 2.5), lead,
sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Note that all of these pollutants are associated with combustion,
directly or indirectly.
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state level. Assessing indoor air quality would require a survey or sample of household level
data within neighborhoods.
For the above–cited reasons, there are no state-level data collected on indoor air quality.
Health indicators (see health goal) will provide some indirect measures, but the causes of poor
health figures are compounded of multiple factors, of which indoor air quality is only one.
3.0 Equity indicators

Disparities in emissions density at county level -- the county total emissions of all or
selected pollutants divided by the geographic size of the county (tons per year per square
mile); trends (normalize by population?).
Health indicators, specifically for asthma, are perhaps the most important indicators of
air quality, as they are the ultimate outcomes of concern (in additional to ecological
impacts). They have the additional advantage of being more finely scaled, and
consequently serving as equity indicators. However, they reflect multiple factors, and so
are only an indirect measure of air quality. If any of the health-based indicators
proposed below are used, they would be listed under the health goals (see below under
‘additional indicators’).
4.0 Climate change indicators
(This imperative is addressed through the energy goal, which is where the relevant indicators
are found.)
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Additional or alternative indicators:
1.1 Number of days/year Air Quality Index (AQI)2 exceeds 100 (i.e., becomes unhealthy for
sensitive groups).
1.3 hazardous air pollutants
Target: Health benchmarks are met for hazardous air pollutants* throughout New
Jersey as estimated in the National-scale Air Toxics Assessment (NATA).
*Hazardous air pollutants, or air toxics, comprise non-‘criteria’ pollutants that are
known or suspected to cause cancer, other serious health effects, or adverse
environmental effects, including diesel particulates, heavy metals (lead, mercury) and
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The daily AQI is set by the highest value that day among five criteria pollutants (excluding lead) that
day. Note that HNJ2020 (Healthy NJ) has set targets for this indicator, so it has institutional backing.
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compounds associated with gasoline and dry cleaning.
[This indicator could be used in addition to one of the above for criteria pollutants. One
reason in favor of adding it is that diesel particulates raise important equity and
environmental justice issues (see below) and are thus important to EJ advocates
concerned with their disproportionate health effects (especially asthma) in urban
neighborhoods].
The New Jersey Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT) Network identifies and
tracks the top ten pollutants (including diesel particulates) on the National-scale Air
Toxics Assessment (NATA). A proviso: these federally reported data are released late
and infrequently: most current data are from 2005, although an update using 2011 data
is reportedly imminent.
Metrics [choose one]:



Diesel Particulate Concentrations in Outdoor Air, by New Jersey County, NATA 2005.
State and county averages. http://www4.state.nj.us/dhssshad/indicator/view/DieselCnty.html
Trend in
“
“
Average annual values (or trends) for each of the top ten toxic air pollutants.
2.0 Indoor air quality
Partial measures could be developed for specific vulnerable populations at particular sites, e.g.:

Number of schools or day-care centers within given distance of known sources of toxic
emissions (e.g., dry cleaners, gas stations), or spatial analysis of co-location (relatively
simple GIS analysis). (Sources: NJ Geoweb; US EPA EJ Mapper)
3.0 Equity
Health indicators:



Children and other sensitive populations in urban neighborhoods have health effects
related to indoor and outdoor air quality that are comparable to those in other areas
of New Jersey
Childhood asthma rates by neighborhood/neighborhood category and
socioeconomic group
Cumulative risk assessments. This approach incorporates a range of stressors over
time, including due to air pollutants, and associated health concerns.
o Various mapping tools (EPA Enviromapper, NJGeoWeb, Environmental
Defense Scorecard) provide data on multiple exposures, including due to air
quality, at the community level. Statewide analysis awaits a third party
effort?
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
o Use local assessments, with help from tools such as EPA’s new CommunityFocused Exposure and Risk Screening Tool (C-FERST, available on a pilot
basis), (http://cfpub.epa.gov/cferst/index.cfm).
Incorporate quality-controlled community-generated data from citizen monitors
(e.g., community-based organizations such as the Ironbound Community
Corporation are conducting local diesel traffic monitoring) with official data through
mapping and spatial analysis;
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