HYDERABAD: Is Hyderabad's air safe to breathe? Maybe, maybe not. Courtesy the complete disparity in air quality data provided by different monitoring stations, there is absolutely no clarity on just how polluted (or unpolluted) he city's air is.
Case in point: January 15, 2016 air quality index (AQI) measured by the many agencies working in this area.While SAFAR (System of Air quality , Weather Forecasting and Research), a Government of India-recognized institute, put Hyderabad's AQI at 80 - which is `goodsatisfactory' by its standards - a wellknown international portal, aqicn.org, declared on its website that the city's air was c l e a rl y " u n healthy". The AQI figure, ac cording to them was 158, which implied that "everyone may begin to experience health effects, members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects". Worse, Plume Labs - a French company best known for real-time monitoring of air quality worldwide - concluded that Hyderabad, on that particular day , was very highly polluted according to thr AQI that read 105. "This means that the air reaches a very high level of pollution.May have harmful effects even in case of short exposure," its mobile-based app explained.
If that's not enough, our own Telangana State Pol lution Control Board (TSP CB) only fur ther added to the confusion by giving out not one but four different AQI readings from four different locations. If the AQI at Sanathnagar, on January 15, stood at 85 (which is `satisfactory'), the same near the Nehru Zoological Park was 109 - indicating `moderate' pollution levels. The other two stations -University of Hyderabad and Punjagutta - too fell within `moderate' limits with an AQI of 99 and 94 respectively . Strangely, however, PCB recordings were seen fluctuating through the day -from `satisfactory' (i.e. 51 to 100) and `poor' (i.e. between 201 and 300) at all these locations. Befuddled? That's not without reason, admit experts. In fact, ruing the many loopholes in the monitoring system they point out how these starkly different readings are rooted in the different methods used by these agencies to calculate the AQI of a certain city .
If some, for instance, base their readings on PM2.5 levels (comprising extremely minute particles that can stick to the tissues of the lungs, if inhaled) some others exclusively take into consideration PM10 levels -minute particles in the air that are less harmful. A few, on the other hand, use both the parameters that automatically push the recorded pollution levels upwards.
Then there is also the issue of aggregating the readings of multiple locations within the city to ascertain the health of its air. "Air quality differs at locations within a city at different times of the day and can also vary as per the parameters taken into account.One cannot say that the air quality of a city is safe or not going by an average - because of the wide range of AQI recordings. Also there might be pockets in the city that are less polluted than other areas that are severely polluted or are over the danger mark," explained Sumit Sharma, research scientist with New Delhi-based The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).
Making similar observations, experts at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), called for a "standardization of monitoring and rating" by the central government so as to be able to accurately record the pollution levels of a city. "This confusion is becoming an issue.There needs to be a standardized method of monitoring and rating to correct this disparity . Also, a city requires a minimum of nine real-time monitoring stations that cover pollution hotspots and high population
density areas," said Vivek Chattopadhyay, programme head, air pollution team at CSE.
At present, Hyderabad has 22 manual and only four realtime AQI monitoring stations that cover the city spread over 7,100 square kilometres (i.e.HMDA limits).
While admitting to the limitations of their "outdated equipment", PCB officials said that they are planning to upgrade their systems soon."At the manual stations we are not monitoring PM 2.5 as the equipment does not support its reading. By February we are likely to install eight new real-time monitoring equipm e n t , " s a i d R avi n d e r N, senior scientist, TSPCB.