Outdoor air quality standards are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency and can be addressed regularly regardless of the high or poor quality of the air.

Indoor air quality standards simply state that all employers are required to make sure that every employee has freedom from recognized hazards which have the potential to contribute to or cause serious health implications or death. While these are some pretty low standards, they have to remain low in order for some jobs to exist. Outside the basic regulations of preventing serious illness and death, OSHA is unable to regulate basic air quality throughout most work environments.

Outdoor air quality standards are set by the EPA and require that pollution levels are measured, monitored, and tracked over a period of time in order to determine the levels of pollutants that are present or absent from any given air sample.

In 1990 the Clean Air Act was amended once again to include the measurement of air quality standards. This record keeping allows scientific communities to monitor the progress of air clean up projects. These measurements can also let the scientific community know when the pollution levels start to rise. This data is then accounted for over a period of time and the results can be interpreted in order to alter the clean air programs.

Over a period of three years, the air quality must not decline beyond a set point more than once per year, on average. This is the basic air quality standard set by the EPA, and is measured regularly. Over the past ten years there have been interesting developments when it comes to interpreting the results of the air quality readings. The strict regulations regarding vehicle emissions have shown a direct correlation to the decline of daily produced ozone, despite the fact that there needs to be tighter regulations to prevent the decline altogether.

The EPA set up two basic air quality standards when it comes to measuring the air quality. The primary pollutants are measured which are set to measure the potential health effects for individuals who are considered to be sensitive to air quality. The secondary standard is set up to measure the potential health effects on the general healthy population. The blend of primary standards and secondary standards has helped to set up the EPA’s air quality indexing system, alerting sensitive individuals to the possibility of ill health effects. This early, primary standard has helped to set up a systematic warning for sensitive individuals, which in turn helps them to live healthier lives through management and protection.