AQI is an index for reporting daily air quality. It tells you how clean or polluted your air is, and what associated health effects might be a concern for you. The AQI focuses on health effects you may experience within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. EPA calculates the AQI for five major air pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act.
The air quality guidance below is published by the New Mexico Environmental Department. Work activity guidance has also been added by LANL's ADESH Directorate.
To address potential work time exposures to ambient particulate (smoke) generated from wild fires, the following guidance is offered:
LANL monitors the composition of particulate matter and volatile organic compounds in the ambient atmosphere in Los Alamos County and to provide better background data for these types of constituents for use in the event of an emergency. Data are downloaded from Tapered Element Oscillating Microbalance (TEOM) samplers every hour. In order to provide the most current data possible, the data have not been fully validated and verified. Two TEOM samplers are present at each sampling site: