The Broward County air toxics monitoring network consists of four permanent sites that collec​t data on a long-term basis (sites no.: 8, 25, 28, and 30). These sites are equipped with programmable/automatic systems to guarantee sampling quality. Four meteorological stations provide information for modeling and data analysis.

Sampling equipment consists of Summa canisters with high purity, mechanical mass flow controllers, and timers attached to the canister valve ports.

Air toxics (also known as hazardous air pollutants or HAPs) samples are collected every sixth day, following the National Urban Air Toxics Monitoring Program (UATMP) schedule. Samples are collected for 24-hours (from midnight to midnight) on the sampling day.

Analysis of the air toxics samples is performed by the Broward County Environmental Monitoring Laboratory. Currently twenty-seven HAPs targeted by the U.S. EPA’s National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment are analyzed for using U.S. EPA Method TO-15. These compounds include acrylonitrile, benzene, 1,3-butadiene, chloroform, 1,3-dichloropropene, methylene chloride, tetrachloroethylene, 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane, and vinyl chloride. The lab uses an Agilent 5973 Network Mass Selective Detector which combines GC/MS performance with instrument control, data communication, and analytical capabilities to perform HAPs analysis.

If you are interested in finding more information about other U.S. EPA methods for measuring air toxics concentrations, click here.

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