Air Quality Events:

Bonfire night - Lewes, November 4th/5th 2006.

As expected the Lewes 2006 bonfire night (4th/5th November), produced the highest 24hr average PM10 (particulate) concentrations of the year. The Lewes Town (LS2) air quality monitoring station, located adjacent to the West St Police Station, monitored PM10 concentrations in excess of 900 µg/m³ (15 minute average). The 24hr average for the period also exceeded the UK objective limit of 50µg/m³ , however this limit can be exceeded 35 times in 1 calendar year.

 

Buncefield Oil Refinery Fire (Hemel Hempstead) Dec 11th - 14th 2005

On the 11th December 2005 a major oil fire occcured at the Buncefield Oil Storage site in Hemel Hempstead. The fire continued through to Tuesday 13th December 2005, and the resulting smoke plume stretched for more that 70 miles across southern England toward France. Satellite images on Monday(12th) night showed the plume of smoke which had risen to several thousand feet above g/l also reached Sussex as well as spreading out over Hampshire, Dorset, Berkshire, the Isle of Wight and towards the West country.

The Sussex Air Quality network in conjunction with Kings College ERG increased the monitoring and data transfer to the national authorities during this period and provided more intensive data for the Sussex-wide forecasts and the national modelling agency ( the Met Office). This proved invaluable to the Emergency Planning Authorities, The Health Protection Agency and local Sussex Authorities.

• The Health Protection Agency (HPA) have produce a Q&A document relative to public health concerns - please click on the link below for further information: HPA Q & A document.

Further Research:

In addition to the monitoring sites across Sussex, Chichester District Council installed an Osiris dust monitor at the newly established Ozone station at Lodsworth (NW Sussex). Data will be made available in the near future.