A NEWS.com.au investigation has found that city centres in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide either don’t have or don’t use “monitoring stations” to measure the amount of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, ozone and harmful particles in the air. Instead, stations at least 4km away collect data and it becomes classified as the city’s air quality.
The closest stations to the Sydney CBD are Rozelle and Randwick, while Melbourne’s “city” station is actually in Richmond. In Adelaide, the closest monitoring station is in Kensington. According to the New South Wales Environmental Protection Authority website, Sydney did have working equipment in the middle of the CBD, but it was decommi stopped using it in 2004.
“It was situated in a heavily trafficked area and, therefore, was a peak monitoring site," the website said. “The (Department of Environment and Conservation) ceased monitoring at this site in August 2004.”
A departmental spokeswoman said the reason behind shutting down the station was because they felt there was no need to measure the levels of dangerous pollution in the city any more.
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http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,21630383-911,00.html