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<p>Defra routinely publishes on the UK-Air website Met Office air pollution forecasts
and real-time monitoring data, which shows air pollution levels across the UK. Defra
also issues daily tweets from the UK-Air Twitter account, which provides the latest
information about current air pollution levels and health advice. These are followed
by journalists who use this to inform their reporting, as well as health charities
and campaign groups who regularly retweet information to vulnerable populations. Given
that this system is in place, Defra does not routinely issue press releases during
air pollution episodes, but has done so on three occasions.</p><p> </p><p>Since the
beginning of May 2014 there have been 27 air pollution episodes. A total of 441 tweets
have been issued from Defra’s UK-Air Twitter account on these occasions. Public Health
England retweets these messages, as do their devolved counterparts in cases where
episodes affect their territories.</p><p> </p><p>Defra also alerts its network of
health charities on each occasion. These alerts provide full details of the nature
of the air pollution episode, its anticipated duration and links to further information
including specific health advice relevant to the episode.</p><p> </p><p>An air pollution
episode is defined as a period during which the level of any measured pollutant monitored
by the UK’s network of air pollution monitoring sites has recorded High or Very High
against the Daily Air Quality Index (DAQI). Also, when ozone is measured to have breached
the Information threshold of 180 microgrammes per cubic metre for one hour (as defined
in air quality legislation) this is classified as an air pollution episode.</p><p>
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