Air Pollution Monitoring Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Environmental Managers, HSE Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-EM-069

Before you join: Participants should have basic familiarity with environmental management, industrial processes, construction activities or HSE reporting.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Air pollution monitoring decisions affect permit compliance, worker and community exposure assessments, complaint investigations, emissions-control investment and public reporting. Poorly located monitors, unsuitable sampling methods, weak calibration records or misunderstood meteorological conditions can produce data that cannot support regulatory action or operational decisions. Environmental professionals need to select appropriate methods, maintain defensible quality controls and explain results clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

This five-day course develops practical capability in ambient air and source-emission monitoring. Participants examine pollutant behaviour, monitoring objectives, site selection, particulate and gaseous pollutant methods, meteorological measurements, stack sampling, continuous emissions monitoring systems and laboratory chain-of-custody controls. The course applies ISO 4225 terminology, EN 12341 particulate monitoring requirements, EN 14181 quality assurance principles and relevant US EPA quality-assurance approaches. Participants learn to prepare monitoring plans, specify instruments, assess data quality, identify abnormal results and interpret concentrations against applicable limits, guidelines and permit conditions.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings with technical cases drawn from industrial facilities, transport corridors, construction projects, power generation and community complaint scenarios. Small-group work uses monitoring records, calibration logs, wind data, source information and laboratory results to make realistic monitoring decisions. Participants leave with an air pollution monitoring plan, field quality-control checklist, data-validation workflow and reporting structure that can be adapted to their own site, project or regulatory setting.

The course is suited to environmental, HSE, compliance and operations personnel who commission, supervise, review or use air monitoring data, rather than laboratory analysts seeking instrument-specific certification.

What you will be able to do

  • Define monitoring objectives, pollutants, averaging periods and decision criteria for a site
  • Design ambient monitoring networks using source, receptor and meteorological information
  • Select particulate, gaseous and deposition monitoring methods for stated data-quality objectives
  • Apply calibration, zero, span, blank and duplicate procedures to field measurements
  • Assess continuous emissions monitoring system performance using EN 14181 quality-assurance principles
  • Validate monitoring datasets using completeness, plausibility, precision and bias checks
  • Interpret air-quality results against permit limits, guideline values and background concentrations
  • Produce an auditable air pollution monitoring plan and results-reporting package

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Ability to challenge unsuitable monitoring proposals and contractor recommendations
  • Practical confidence interpreting calibration records, field sheets and laboratory certificates
  • Evidence-based approach to responding to odour, dust and emissions complaints
  • Clearer technical communication with regulators, laboratories and operations teams
  • Reusable documentation for planning and reviewing site monitoring campaigns

For your organisation

  • Better targeted monitoring expenditure through defensible objectives and site selection
  • Stronger evidence for permit compliance, inspections and regulatory submissions
  • Earlier detection of abnormal emissions and failing pollution-control equipment
  • More credible responses to community complaints and stakeholder enquiries
  • Consistent quality controls across internal teams and external monitoring contractors

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define monitoring objectives and decision criteria for a specified air-quality issue.

  • Pollutant pathways, exposure routes and receptor sensitivity in monitoring decisions
  • Criteria pollutants, hazardous air pollutants and nuisance indicators distinguished
  • Emission inventories linked to ambient concentrations and source contributions
  • National limit values, guideline values and permit conditions compared
  • ISO 4225 terminology for air quality measurement and reporting
  • Monitoring objectives framed around compliance, exposure, trends and complaints

Participants can design a monitoring strategy using source, receptor and meteorological evidence.

  • Data quality objectives define required accuracy, completeness and averaging periods
  • Conceptual site models connect sources, pathways, receptors and controls
  • Background, source-oriented and population-exposure monitoring locations compared
  • Siting criteria address obstructions, inlet height, security and power
  • Wind roses and seasonal conditions inform station placement decisions
  • Fixed, mobile and passive monitoring approaches matched to objectives

Participants can select and assess particulate monitoring methods for common site conditions.

  • PM10, PM2.5, total suspended particulates and dustfall differentiated
  • EN 12341 reference methods for PM10 and PM2.5 sampling
  • Gravimetric sampling trains, filters and flow-control requirements examined
  • Optical particle counters assessed against gravimetric reference measurements
  • Directional dust gauges positioned using source and receptor information
  • Construction dust monitoring triggers linked to corrective action procedures

Participants can choose suitable methods for gaseous pollutants and odour investigations.

  • Sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and carbon monoxide measurement principles
  • Passive diffusion tubes planned for screening and spatial comparison
  • Chemiluminescence, fluorescence and infrared analysers matched to target pollutants
  • Canister and sorbent-tube sampling selected for volatile organic compounds
  • Detection limits, interferences and response times evaluated before deployment
  • Odour diaries, field observations and source records structured for investigations

Participants can use meteorological data to explain pollutant patterns and source influence.

  • Wind speed, direction, temperature and rainfall measurements specified
  • Meteorological mast siting avoids wake effects and local obstructions
  • Wind roses reveal prevailing transport directions and calm conditions
  • Time-series plots compare concentration peaks with operational events
  • Temperature inversions and atmospheric stability affect pollutant dispersion
  • Pollution roses combine concentration data with wind-direction frequency

Participants can specify and review source-emissions monitoring and CEMS quality controls.

  • Stack test objectives distinguish compliance testing from process diagnostics
  • Representative sampling planes assessed for flow disturbance and access
  • ISO 9096 principles for stationary-source particulate concentration measurement
  • Continuous emissions monitoring system components and measurement chains identified
  • EN 14181 quality assurance levels applied to automated measuring systems
  • Zero, span and drift checks interpreted against action thresholds

Participants can control field sampling activities to protect sample integrity and traceability.

  • Sampling schedules align duration, frequency and averaging-period requirements
  • Pre-deployment instrument checks document flow, clocks and operating status
  • Field blanks, trip blanks and duplicates detect contamination and variability
  • Chain-of-custody forms track samples from collection through laboratory receipt
  • Filter conditioning, storage temperatures and transport times preserve samples
  • Field logs capture weather, activities, deviations and equipment faults

Participants can evaluate whether monitoring data are fit for their intended use.

  • Quality assurance plans assign responsibilities, procedures and acceptance criteria
  • Calibration traceability links instruments to recognised reference standards
  • Precision, bias, accuracy and uncertainty calculated from quality-control results
  • Data completeness assessed against planned sampling and valid-data requirements
  • Validation flags identify suspect, invalid, missing and substituted values
  • Control charts reveal drift, step changes and recurring instrument faults

Participants can analyse monitoring results and communicate findings with appropriate limits.

  • Averaging periods calculated for hourly, daily, annual and campaign datasets
  • Descriptive statistics summarise central tendency, range and percentile concentrations
  • Background-adjusted comparisons distinguish local influence from regional pollution
  • Exceedance analysis compares validated results with applicable assessment criteria
  • Time-series, boxplot and pollution-rose graphics selected for audience needs
  • Monitoring reports separate observations, interpretations, limitations and recommendations

Participants can prepare a practical monitoring action plan for routine and abnormal conditions.

  • Complaint-response protocols define notification, observation and sampling actions
  • Trigger-action-response plans connect thresholds to operational controls
  • Contractor scopes specify methods, deliverables, quality controls and reporting
  • Monitoring procurement criteria assess competence, accreditation scope and equipment suitability
  • Corrective actions prioritise source control before increased monitoring frequency
  • Site monitoring plans assign review dates, responsibilities and escalation routes

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Air pollution monitoring plan template
  2. Monitoring location selection checklist
  3. Field sampling and chain-of-custody checklist
  4. Calibration and quality-control log template
  5. Data-validation decision workflow
  6. Air-quality results reporting structure

Who should attend

  • Environmental Managers — responsible for monitoring programmes, permits and environmental reporting
  • HSE Managers — need defensible exposure and emissions information for risk controls
  • Environmental Engineers — specify monitoring systems and interpret emissions-control performance
  • Compliance Officers — review monitoring evidence against licence and regulatory conditions
  • Site Operations Managers — use monitoring results to investigate abnormal emissions and complaints
  • Environmental Consultants — design surveys and report findings for industrial and infrastructure clients

Skills and tools covered

Monitoring network designAmbient air samplingStack emissions measurementData quality assuranceMeteorological interpretationCompliance reporting

Tools and standards

ISO 4225, EN 12341, EN 14181, ISO 9096

How the course runs

Training methodology

Short technical briefings introduce monitoring principles, standards and decision rules before participants apply them to realistic cases. Group work examines site plans, emission sources, receptor locations, wind roses, instrument specifications, calibration records and results tables. Simulated monitoring decisions require participants to choose methods, locate stations, identify quality-control actions and decide whether data are fit for reporting. Instructor feedback links each activity to permit conditions, investigation needs and practical site constraints. Participants finish by adapting a monitoring plan and reporting approach to their own responsibilities.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic familiarity with environmental management, industrial processes, construction activities or HSE reporting. Experience reading simple technical reports, spreadsheets and site plans is helpful. The course assumes participants may need to commission or review monitoring rather than personally operate every instrument. Prior knowledge of atmospheric chemistry, laboratory analysis, dispersion modelling, advanced statistics or regulatory law is not required. Participants should bring awareness of their own site, project or recurring air-quality concern where possible.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should understand basic environmental, HSE or operational responsibilities and be comfortable reading technical documents. You do not need prior instrument operation, laboratory training, advanced statistics or dispersion-modelling experience.

Bring a laptop if available, plus any non-confidential site plans, permit conditions, monitoring reports or recurring complaint issues relevant to your work. Course materials and case data are supplied.

It is intended for environmental, HSE, compliance, engineering, operations and consulting personnel who manage, commission, review or use air monitoring data. It is not an instrument-manufacturer certification course for specialist laboratory analysts.

This course focuses on measuring emissions and ambient concentrations, controlling data quality and interpreting monitoring results. Dispersion modelling uses emissions and meteorological inputs to predict concentrations; it is addressed only where needed to explain monitoring design.

Participants can use the templates to review contractor proposals, establish monitoring stations, check field and calibration records, and prepare defensible reports. The methods also support dust, odour, stack-emissions and community-complaint investigations.

The course runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, with about 6.5 contact hours daily. Time is divided between instructor briefings, technical cases, group analysis of monitoring evidence and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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