Air pollution monitoring: Non-Automatic Hydrocarbon Network
How to get air pollution data from the Non-Automatic Hydrocarbon Network and the pollutants it measures.
The Non-Automatic Hydrocarbon Network measures concentrations of benzene in ambient (outdoor) air. The concentration is the proportion of benzene in a volume of air.
Defra measures concentrations of benzene in ambient air to assess if the UK is complying with:
- UK air pollution objectives
- the Air Quality Standards Regulations 2010 limit value for benzene (annual mean concentrations must be no more than 5 micrograms per cubic metre)
Get air pollution data
Get air pollution data and find monitoring stations in the Non-Automatic Hydrocarbon Network.
You can get estimates of benzene emissions in the UK from the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory website.
Monitoring stations in this network
This network has 34 monitoring stations.
The monitoring stations are located at urban traffic, urban industrial and urban background sites.
Urban traffic sites
Urban traffic sites are in a city or town close to roads, motorways or highways.
Monitoring stations in this network at urban traffic sites:
- Bath A4 Roadside
- Birmingham A4540 Roadside
- Bury Whitefield Roadside
- Cambridge Roadside
- Carlisle Morton A595
- Chatham Roadside
- Chesterfield Roadside
- Glasgow Kerbside
- Haringey Roadside
- London Farringdon Street
- Oxford Centre Roadside
- Stockton-on-Tees Eaglescliffe
- York Fishergate
Urban industrial sites
Urban industrial sites are in a city or town, downwind of an industrial source.
Monitoring stations in this network at urban industrial sites:
- Grangemouth
- Liverpool Speke
- Port Talbot Margam
- Scunthorpe Town
Urban background sites
Urban background sites are in a city or town, located so pollutant measurements do not come from one specific source. They monitor air pollution where people work or live.
Monitoring stations in this network at urban background sites:
- Barnsley Gawber
- Belfast Centre
- Birmingham Ladywood
- Leamington Spa
- Leeds Centre
- London Bloomsbury
- Manchester Piccadilly
- Middlesbrough
- Newcastle Centre
- Newport
- Norwich Lakenfields
- Nottingham Kenmore Gardens
- Oxford St Ebbes
- Sheffield Devonshire Green
- Southampton Centre
- Stoke-on-Trent Centre
- York Bootham
Monitoring instruments and methods
Monitoring instruments collect benzene samples by pumping ambient air into sampling tubes. Local site operators collect the samples every 2 weeks and send them to a laboratory for analysis. They also change and check the sampling tubes.
Monitoring stations in this network are co-located with stations in the Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN). This means that data from this network can be compared with AURN data to validate it.
The results are published every 3 months (every quarter) on Get air pollution data.
The standard that must be followed for this monitoring method is: EN 14662-1:2023: Ambient air quality – standard method for measurement of benzene concentrations.
When this network started
This network started in 2001.
Annual technical reports
View the Non-Automatic Hydrocarbon Network annual technical reports.