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Welcome to Environment Canada's Atlantic Regional website for air quality forecast services.
The Air Quality Health Index or "AQHI" is a scale designed to help you understand how the air quality around can affect your health. The index, which is available year-round, is designed to help you make decisions to protect your health by limiting your short-term exposure to air pollution and adjusting your activity levels during periods of increased air pollution. It also tells you how you can help to improve the quality of the air you breathe.
The AQHI reflects the current knowledge about the health effects of air pollution. While air quality has been reported for many years, this new index has been created with a different goal - to report the health risk posed by a specific level of air quality. The AQHI looks at the health-risk from air pollution whereas the traditional Air Quality Index provides information on the quality of the air compared to Canadian air quality standards and/or criteria for pollutants.
Health Canada and Environment Canada are supporting provinces, municipalities and non-government organizations as they begin to implement and communicate this new personal health-protection tool. Implementation of the AQHI will also give Canadians health-risk information that is consistent across the country.
Air Quality and You
The Air Quality Health Index program has been expanding and now includes forecasts for all four Atlantic Provinces. Over the coming months this website will be undergoing revisions. Check back often.
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