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Environment & Climate vocabulary · Pollution and Environmental Quality

Air quality

Meaning in environment & climate, with examples

/ˈer ˌkwɑːləti/nounCore term

In environment & climate, air quality means: How clean or polluted the air is, measured by the levels of pollutants such as fine particles, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and sulfur dioxide.

In Turkish: hava kalitesi

How it is used

Used by municipalities, health agencies and environmental engineers. Air quality is measured at monitoring stations, reported with an air quality index (AQI) and compared with limit values or WHO guidelines. It can be good or poor, and it improves or deteriorates.

Example sentences

  1. Air quality in the city usually gets worse in winter, when many homes burn coal for heating.

  2. The app shows real-time air quality data from more than 300 monitoring stations.

Common collocations

  • air quality index
  • poor air quality
  • improve air quality
  • air quality monitoring
  • air quality standards
  • pollutionThe presence in air, water or soil of harmful substances, or of noise, light or heat, at levels that damage people's health, wildlife or the environment.
  • particulate matter (PM)Tiny solid or liquid particles in the air, such as dust, soot and smoke. The smallest ones, PM2.5, can travel deep into the lungs and even into the bloodstream.
  • smogA thick haze of air pollution over a city, formed from smoke, vehicle exhaust and industrial emissions and often made worse by sunlight and still weather.
  • environmental monitoringThe regular measurement and recording of environmental conditions, such as air and water quality, noise or wildlife, to check compliance and detect changes over time.

More terms: Pollution and Environmental Quality

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