Air pollutant exposure evidence review

Footnotes

1 Cleaner Air for Scotland 2 – Towards a Better Place for Everyone.

2 Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollution. Advice on health evidence relevant to setting PM2.5 targets. March 2021.

3 Catalano, A. & Congreve, E. (2025). Air Pollution and Inequality in Scotland, Scottish Health Equity Research Unit.

4 Barnes J, Walker B, Bray I, Hayes E. (2023). Review and Assessment of the Evidence on Health Impacts of Low-Level Pollution in Countries with Levels of Ambient Air Pollution Comparable to Scotland, Bristol: Air Quality Management Resource Centre (AQMRC) and Centre for Public Health and Wellbeing (CPHWB), University of the West of England for the Scottish Government.

5 Air quality in Scotland data

6 Air quality in Scotland - Local air quality management

7 Hector D, Gray S, Stratton S (2025) Scottish Air Quality Database and Website. Annual Report 2024. Report for Scottish Government. Ricardo Ref ED19050

8 Air Quality Consultants and the University of Edinburgh (2019) Investigation into Diffusion Tube Bias Adjustment Factors.

9 Environment Agency - Monitoring emission to air, land and water (MCERTS)

10 Air Quality Expert Group (2023) New Opportunities for Particulate Measurements.

11 The UK National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI)

12 Defra national Pollution Climate Mapping (PCM) modelled background concentrations

13 UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology - EMEP4UK

14 see ‘Evaluation of the effect of PM_2.5 due to domestic solid fuel burning on health outcomes in Scotland’ for Scottish Government.

15 United States Environment Protection Agency - The Integrated Source Apportionment Method (CMAQ-ISAM)

16 Air Quality Expert Group. Differentials in air pollutant exposure across communities and regions in the UK.

17 Seaton M., O'Neill J., Bien B., Hood C., Jackson M., Jackson R., Johnson K., Oades M., Stidworthy A., Stocker J. and Carruthers D. (2022) A Multi-model Air Quality System for Health Research: Road model development and evaluation. Environmental Modelling and Software. Volume 155. 105455.

18 Liška, T., Heal, M.R., Lin, C., Vieno, M., Carnell, E.J., Tomlinson, S., Loh, M., and Reis, S.: The effect of workplace mobility on air pollution exposure inequality — a case study in the Central Belt of Scotland. Environmental Research: Health, 2(2), 025006, 2024.

19 E.g. Monthly Global Estimates of Fine Particulate Matter and Their Uncertainty

20 Scottish Pollutant Release Inventory

21 Scotland's Census

22 UK gridded population at 1 km resolution for 2021 based on Census 2021/2022 and Land Cover Map 2021

23 Scottish Government - Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation: data and resources

24 Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification 2022

25 Directive (EU) 2024/2881 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2024 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe

26 Environmental Standards Scotland (2022). Baseline Evidence Review: Air 2022, Environmental Standards Scotland.

27 UK-Air - Defra - Population exposure reduction target

28 Lang et al (2019) A trend analysis approach for air quality network data. Atmospheric Environment.

29 Grey et al (2024) Evaluating disparities in air pollution as a function of ethnicity, deprivation and sectoral emissions in England. Environment International Volume 194, 109146.

30 Overview of methods to assess population exposure to ambient air pollution. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2023. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

31 An explanation of the 6-fold Urban Rural classification

32 ‘average exposure territorial unit’ means a part of the territory of a Member State designated by that Member State for the purposes of determining the average exposure indicator,

33 The Environmental Targets (Fine Particulate Matter) (England) Regulations 2023

34 The designation of the zones is detailed in a report dating from 2000: Article 5 Assessment of nitrogen dioxide, PM10, sulphur dioxide and lead in the UK

35 Barnes J, Walker B, Bray I, Hayes E. (2023). Review and Assessment of the Evidence on Health Impacts of Low-Level Pollution in Countries with Levels of Ambient Air Pollution Comparable to Scotland, Bristol: Air Quality Management Resource Centre (AQMRC) and Centre for Public Health and Wellbeing (CPHWB), University of the West of England for the Scottish Government.

36 Miall N, Fergie G, Pearce A. Health Inequalities in Scotland: trends in deaths, health and wellbeing, health behaviours, and health services since 2000 [Internet]. University of Glasgow; 2022 Nov [cited 2024 Aug 20].

37 Catalano, A. & Congreve, E. (2025). Air Pollution and Inequality in Scotland, Scottish Health Equity Research Unit

38 Grey et al (2024) Evaluating disparities in air pollution as a function of ethnicity, deprivation and sectoral emissions in England. Environment International Volume 194, 109146.

39 Scottish Government - Scottish House Condition Survey: key findings and analysis

40 Defra (2024) Domestic Burning Practices in the UK. Burning in UK homes and gardens.

41 2011 census used because the 2022 census uses different data zones which are not directly comparable with the SIMD

42 Continuous or daily sampling used for compliance assessment such as chemiluminescence samplers for NO₂ and a variety of reference-equivalent instruments for PM.

43 For example, most types of NO₂ diffusion tubes and low-cost sensors.

44 Measurement Uncertainty for PM2.5 in the Context of the UK National

45 Expanded uncertainty quantifies both systematic bias (the average difference between the method and the reference method) and random error (the variability in the relationship). It is calculated as the square root of the combined square of the bias component and the square of the random component, divided by the limit value, multiplied by 100 to express as a percentage, and then multiplied by a coverage factor of 2 to provide 95% confidence (EN 16450:2017).

46 Characterization of Ambient Air Pollution Measurement Error in a Time-Series Health Study using a Geostatistical Simulation Approach

47 Berkson error arises when an observed value (like a group average) is fixed, but the true individual values vary randomly around that fixed point. In this scenario, the measurement error is independent of the observed value but correlated with the true value, which prevents the "attenuation bias" usually seen in other types of measurement error.

48 While Berkson error is traditionally considered not to introduce bias, this is often not true for air quality, because monitor siting constraints can cause bias (for example, if only background monitors are used then near-source exposure is under-counted).

49 AQEG (2012) Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) in the United Kingdom.

50 WHO global air quality guidelines.

51 Air Quality Expert Group - Modelling of future PM2.5 in support of the Defra air quality

52 Clean Air Advisory Panel - Advice Note (2024): Development of New PM2.5 Air Quality Targets for Wales