A recent review of the air pollution perception literature (Bickerstaff and Walker, 2001)
showed that publicity about air pollution has been an important factor
in influencing public awareness of air pollution. Thus itwas not possible
to identify whether people actually sensed polluted air in their environment,
or whether their perception was biassed by media coverage.
Assessing the ability of people to detect the existence of polluted air
in their environment is further complicated by the interference of
other environmental parameters affecting the overall comfort of the
individual.