At the beginning of the nineties, there was growing national and international recognition that the most significant environmental and health effects of air pollutants may be associated with fine and ultrafine particles. In response to this, in 1992 a new research unit, the Environmental Aerosol Laboratory (EAL) specialising in environmental aerosol science with a particular focus on fine and ultrafine particles, a unique facility in Australia, was established within the Centre for Medical and Health Physics at QUT.
In 1995 a second facility, the Air Monitoring and Research Station (AMRS), was established as a joint venture between QUT and the Queensland Department of Environment and became a part of the EAL. The AMRS is also part of a network that monitors air quality in South-East Queensland. At the beginning of 2002 the Environmental Radioactivity Laboratory, which focuses a significant part of its activities on airborne radioactivity, merged with the EAL to form one unit.
In April 2002 the name of the EAL was changed to the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health (ILAQH) to better reflect the scope of activities conducted by this unit and to be more in line with the nature and scope of the joint activities conducted with the World Health Organization.
- In March 2004, ILAQH obtained the status of a Collaborating Centre of the World Health Organization on Research and Training in the field of Global Burden of Disease due to Air Pollution.
- Together with the Queensland Department of Public Works, ILAQH received the 2004 Premier’s Award for Excellence in Public Sector Management for the “…internationally acknowledged groundbreaking research of Professor Lidia Morawska and her team.”
- ILAQH was awarded the 2004 Queensland Branch of the Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand Achievement Award “…for making a significant contribution to achieving improvements in the quality of the air environment.”
- In 2007, ILAQH received a Certificate of Achievement for Outstanding Research Success from the Faculty of Science, Queensland University of Technology.