ALL4’s: Is That Your Final Answer?

Last Month’s Answer and Winner:

Congratulations to Mr. Scott Kirkpatrick of NewPage in Wickliffe, KY who correctly identified the piece of monitoring equipment pictured in April’s “Is That Your Final Answer” question as a sonic anemometer.  A sonic anemometer uses sound waves to make meteorological wind speed and wind direction measurements using the Doppler shift (remember the shift in tone of the fire truck siren as it approaches and then passes you, that’s the Doppler shift).  We posed this question about meteorological measurements to highlight the fact that meteorological data and air dispersion modeling are destined to play important roles for facilities in the next few years.

Question:

Contrasted against the deliberate nature of last month’s question, this month’s “Is That Your Final Answer” question came to us rather by chance.  As some office cleaning was taking place, an aged and yellowed photocopied sheet slipped from the pages of an old text book.  On this page we encountered a surprise.  For on this sheet were listed the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for criteria pollutants.  Now as you know, Section 109 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) requires air quality “criteria” be developed for pollutants that are part of the NAAQS program.  Prior to the 1970 CAA, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) took the first initiative at deriving the air quality criteria documents that would serve as the basis for establishing a NAAQS.  Today we are very familiar with the six criteria pollutants: fine particulate matter (PM₁₀/PM_2.5), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), ozone (O₃), lead (Pb), and carbon monoxide (CO).  However, as shown on the yellowed photocopy from the late 1970s there was a seventh criteria pollutant.  The seventh criteria pollutant was not viewed as rigorously as the other six criteria pollutants and was eventually removed.  For this month’s “Is That Your Final Answer” question name the seventh criteria pollutant.  Hint, total suspended particulate is not the correct answer.  Good luck!

Answer: 

Please e-mail your answer to final.answer@all4inc.com.  Include in the e-mail your name, answer, and address (to receive your prize).

ALL4’s Final Answer is a monthly feature of our Blog Digest.  It is designed to test your knowledge across the environmental field, quiz you on the building blocks of air quality rules, stump you on ALL4 general trivia, and challenge you with brain teasers that have perplexed us.  The first correct answer e-mailed to us will qualify the respondent for free ALL4 gear and will enter the winner in our end-of-the year “Final Answer Championship.”  The subsequent month’s Final Answer will identify the winner and the correct answer from the previous month’s question.  You must be an active subscriber of ALL4’s Blog Digest to win a monthly prize and be eligible for the championship prize.  ALL4 employees and family members are not eligible to compete.  Hope you enjoy this feature and good luck!