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What are they monitoring, anyway? Again, the monitoring process need to take into account the fact that different pollutants have different health risks and concentrate on only those posing the greatest threat. For example, in many Western countries, the health effects of NO2, particulates and O3 are considered to be lethal. On the other hand, concentrations of SO2 have fallen in recent years, and it has ceased to be a health problem. So the monitoring of SO2 has been reduced to a minimum, while expanding the monitoring networks for NO2 and ultrafine particles like PM10,PM2.5. But in India, extensive SO2 monitoring facilities continue to exist, though its levels are way below standard. Though the levels of O3, sulphate and other air toxics are expected to be very high in Indian cities, the monitoring network has not been adapted to track these deadly poisons. Challenged, technically… Ideally, a city should have an efficient automatic monitoring network. A computerised system would measure all major pollutants and provide data continuously to a central control. This can then be fed to the public information display system, for regular health alerts. But in India, the high cost of such an infrastructure prevents its application in most of the cities. So, only a few big metros like Delhi have hybrid systems — a combination of manual and automatic monitors. Now, manual monitoring is low cost and easy to operate. But it has some serious limitations. Take the case of one of the most harmful pollutants—particulates. In a manual system daily update of its peak levels cannot be monitored, so any in-depth analysis of the real problem sources within the cities has to be ruled out. Tell the people The most important step. Keeping the public informed so that they were aware of the level of risks they face. Easy and regular access to air quality data is vital for this. In India, for a long time data updates was a serious hurdle. There was a considerable time lag in reporting — nearly one to two years! According to CPCB, manual data processing from across the region (read SPCBs) takes a long time. However, of late, the time lag for all stations in Delhi has been reduced considerably. From stations with online monitoring systems, it is possible to access the current data almost on a daily basis. The CPCB has attempted to improve this online system of data reporting to enable SPCBs to directly feed data from different cities to the central database called Environmental data bank, for further processing. Nearly, 240 stations from round the country currently report data online. However, there is still a time lag in publishing of processed and analysed national air quality data by CPCB under NAMP. But experts say that cities should move towards building the capacity to relay data on daily basis. Up-to-date information on air quality help influence people to behave in more environment-friendly ways. But…do we understand the data? Really? Fact and figures, even if they are fed to us everyday can be pretty confusing to a lay person. So we know that particulate pollution load in our city is XX microgramme per cubic metre. But is that good, average or bad? If it is bad, how seriously affected are we? Global experience has shown that data on the concentrations of pollutants holds no meaning for people. It becomes relevant to a common citizen only when an index or rating system is used that groups the concentrations of several pollutants into broad bands and describes air quality in terms of good, moderate, poor and hazardous. Rating of the air quality or using numerals to denote the quality — known as air quality indices — is the most commonly used method (see Box: Health alerts). These are flashed on a daily basis through public information systems to alert people. This can serve the dual purpose of alerting people to take adequate protection to reduce health risks and also in prompting city authorities to take emergency measures to fix the problem. How to clear the air…  Make it legal As you must have comprehended by now, air quality management is a job of stupendous scale. It requires stringent, strategic planning that includes huge investments, enormous technical upgrades and skills, and a set of laws that can force the laggard government agencies to get their act together. Currently air quality standards are not legally enforceable. That is, a state government cannot be penalized if its cities continue to remain severely polluted. Or if the CPCB sets regional targets to reduce pollution load, the administrative authorities in these zones may fail to meet those and still go scot free!! This needs to change, don’t you think? Gear up to fight it. NOW! The key word as far as air quality management goes is ‘urgent’. But despite the obvious fallout, the Union government—which is currently revising the air quality standards and also including new pollutants for regulations—has been sitting on it for a very long time. Meanwhile, for cities like Delhi, Kanpur and score of others, time is running out pretty fast.
The Union ministry of environment and forests must notify its proposed air quality standards without delay to help city governments enforce control strategies The city government must introduce a daily health alert system to inform the sensitive population (children, elderly and those suffering from respiratory and cardiac problems) about the high daily levels and enforce emergency pollution control measures such as restricting traffic, and allowing only clean fuel and vehicles and public transport in affected areas till the levels dissipate. We have a role to play too, a very critical one. It has been proved beyond doubt that the primary source of air pollution is vehicular emission. These are gases spewed by the cars, bikes, and sports utility vehicles (SUVs) that most of us drive everyday. Air quality rating across countries USA The Clean Air Act (CAA) in US ensures that metropolitans collect air quality details for public information on air quality index. The UESPA index is applied for assessment that assigns colours for concentrations of pollutants: green for “good”, yellow for “moderate”, orange for “unhealthy”. Mexico Pollution alert is issued in three stages Phase I: When particulate matter exceeds 1.75 times the standard or when the ozone concentration scales by 2.40 times. This calls for 30-40 percent cut in emissions, halting vehicles, street repairs to minimize jams and a note of caution to drivers not to use cars, most polluting vehicles are stopped from plying. Phase II: When either ozone or PM (particulate matter) triples up. Schools are closed to reduce the number of vehicles . Phase III: Involves emergency call for closing down industries and curtailing other activities. UK Public information about air quality is disseminated by the hour. Information on five air pollutants is updated every hour. The air pollution Information Service uses four color bands to describe levels of pollution. France There are ten levels to air quality. The first represents excellent quality and the tenth atrocious. To discourage private transport, public transport is made free. Now you tell me what WE can do to fix the problem. Write to: panditji@cseindia.org |
