Monitoring of pollution levels
Certain air pollutants are routinely monitored to assess levels of pollution across the borough. The monitoring strategy has been developed and adapted over the years to prioritise pollutants which have been identified to have most risk of breaching the air quality objectives.
The whole of Sandwell has been declared as an Air Quality Management Area for Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) because there are several areas of the borough where pollution levels were found to be above an acceptable concentration. These areas have been designated as ‘priority zones’ for improving air quality.
Nitrogen Dioxide is measured on a monthly basis using diffusion tubes which are a simple and inexpensive method of measuring air quality. The results are averaged over a year and then compared to the Government's Air Quality objective of 40 microgrammes per cubic metre (ug/m3).
Although automatic monitoring stations provide more detailed real-time data, these are more expensive to purchase and maintain. Consequently, there are fewer of these used by the council.
Sandwell Council’s air quality diffusion tubes, automatic monitoring stations and priority zones can be viewed in an interactive map.
To increase our understanding of local air quality a network of 21 ‘Zephyr’ air quality monitors was installed in 2022. These monitors are located across the six towns of Sandwell and provide real time ‘indicative’ air pollution data. Live data from eight of these Zephyrs can be accessed on our air quality dashboard, which was funded as part of a successful bid to Defra's Air Quality Grant for the ‘Faith Centres for Clean Air’ project.