"Authorities Guess at Crucial Pollutant"

"Among air experts, it's an open secret: federal and state officials grossly undercount a crucial type of air pollution, often by an order of magnitude and particularly in areas like Houston with its major concentrations of petrochemical plants."

"The undercounted pollutants are volatile organic compounds, a type of hydrocarbon that's a major contributor to harmful air.

But at the University of Houston this spring, a much anticipated shipment of advanced air pollution measuring tools from Sweden will arrive at Science and Research Building 1, part of a trans-Atlantic effort by scientists and engineers to address the undercount."

Ingrid Lobet reports for the Houston Chronicle November 11, 2012.