The current features of Air Quality Ontario were introduced in May 2000. Air Quality Ontario covers the Canadian province of Ontario and is a service of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. The purpose of this program is to protect and improve air quality. Smog alerts are aimed to protect people with breathing difficulties and to encourage the reduction of polluting activities.

Air Quality Ontario provides daily Air Quality Index (AQI) maps and 3-day forecasts as well as email alerts for several places in Ontario. These products provide information on current and forecasted AQI as well as current concentration of the pollutants O3, PM2.5, NO2, SO2 and CO.

The information is collected by a network of 40 air monitoring stations across Ontario and published by Air Quality Ontario in real-time on a 24/7 basis. Main users are the general public, people with breathing difficulties and major producers of pollution.

References:
Air Quality Ontario Website (http://www.airqualityontario.com/, accessed on February 08, 2012)
V. Grasso and A. Singh, UNEP (Dec 2011, forthcoming): Early Warning Systems: State-of-Art Analysis and Future Directions.