Air Quality Monitoring
Tipperary County Council and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have jointly completed a project to install an Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations across Tipperary.
Monitoring units have been installed in Clonmel, Tipperary Town and Nenagh.
Clonmel & Tipperary Town
The units are known as a FIDAS air monitoring system which monitors and records Particulate Matter (PM) which when exceeds defined limits represents a significant risk to human health.
The system measures air quality and transmits the data in real-time; graphical results are presented on the EPA website. All members of the public have access to this data as well as the national Air Quality Index for Health.
The Environmental Protection Agency's Air Quality Index for Health (AQIH) is a number from one to 10 that tells you what the air quality currently is in the station nearest you and whether or not this might affect the health of you or your child.
The new monitoring stations completes Tipperary County Councils collaboration with the EPA as part of the EPA’s national monitoring network which is being expanded and upgraded in over seventy locations nationwide under the National Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Programme (AAMP).
The stations in Clonmel and Tipperary Town are Tier 2 stations within the network.
The AAMP programme is focused on measuring various pollutants which pose risks to human health, including Particulate Matter (PM). Frequent exposure to these pollutants has the potential to aggravate asthma and other respiratory diseases and contribute to lung disease and heart issues.
PM represents a significant health threat and it is estimated that, in Ireland, approximately 1,500 deaths annually are attributable to poor air quality. The dominant source of Particulate Matter is domestic fuel burning. The FIDAS unit in Clonmel measures PM10 and PM2.5. (Small inhalable particles measuring 10 micrometres or less and 2.5 micrometres or less, respectively. A micron equals one millionth of a meter).
Nenagh
Tipperary County Council and the EPA have also installed a Tier 3 monitoring station in Nenagh, using an Osiris monitor to measure PM10 and PM2.5. Tier 3 stations provide indicative, local measurements of air quality.
Data for the Clonmel monitor is available at:
https://www.epa.ie/air/quality/data/cl/clonmelparticulates/
Data for the Tipperary Town monitor is available at:
http://www.epa.ie/air/quality/data/tt/pm/
For further information, please see the EPA’s Air Quality website:
http://www.epa.ie/air/quality/
https://www.epa.ie/air/quality/index/
