The current standard is developed for the purpose of implementing the Law of the People's Republic of China on Environmental Protection and Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Atmospheric Pollution, strengthening supervision & management of prevention and control of pollution, ensuring smooth work of handling and exchange of environmental information, and unifying codes for air pollutants. The current standard identifies the categories of environmental management, statistics & monitoring, environment impact assessment, emission right trade, emergency response to pollution accidents, various kinds of atmospheric environment quality and air pollutant emission standards, implementation of international conventions, environment scientific research, environmental engineering, classification and tabulating of air pollutants and relevant indicators in relation to environment & health as well as lab information system. It also specifies the codes for air pollutants. The current standard is applicable to the collection, exchange, processing and use of the information relevant to air pollutants as well as the management of development of environmental information system by environmental protection departments at all levels. The current standard is released for the first time in China.

Codes for Air Pollutants(HJ 524—2009)