Delhi doesn’t come close to meeting US pollution standards on most days

The Times of India , Monday, July 17, 2017
Correspondent : Jayashree Nandi
NEW DELHI: The annual average PM2.5 concentration in Delhi is typically more than 10 times the US National Ambient Air Quality Standard of 12 micrograms per cubic metres. Such poor air quality has significant economic and health impacts (e.g., heart attack, asthma, lung cancer, mortality) and India needs to initiate PM 2.5 speciation and epidemiological studies to control sources effectively— this was the outcome of four workshops held in Delhi, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Lucknow last year by Indian and American scientists and US assembly officials.

These workshops were part of an agreement on climate change between the two countries that was inked when US President Barack Obama visited India in 2015. The aim was to reduce air pollution in Indian cities, particularly Delhi.

Recently, the recommendations of this coalition was published by the US-based Air and Waste Management Association. But now with a marked change in the Trump government's policies towards climate change, scientists aren't sure whether this cooperation will continue.

It's also not clear whether the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA), which has been facing staff cuts under the current government, will continue with such a project.

The above-mentioned workshops had participation from Indian government officials, industry representatives, scientists, NGOs and US scientists.

Scientists found that PM2.5 concentrations between January and December 2016 averaged around 138 micrograms per cubic metres.

Approximately 84% of the days experienced PM2.5 levels that were unhealthy for sensitive populations; 67% of the days experienced PM2.5 levels that were in the unhealthy range for all population; and 13.5% of the days saw PM2.5 levels that were in the hazardous conditions as defined by the AQI scale in US.

The discussions found that while Global Burden of Disease Study led to several initiatives but epidemiological studies had not driven the air pollution control policy in India. "One of the major gaps identified is a lack of high-quality air quality and health effects data that are accessible and archived. CPCB maintains a network of approximately 342 stations that monitors sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and PM 10, and plans to expand it to include PM2.5. There is currently no routine PM2.5 speciation programme in place in India," the report added.

Scientists found that there was no comprehensive national-level emission inventory system currently in place. "New regulations implemented in 2016 require 17 industrial sectors to install continuous emission monitoring systems (CEMS) with features to transmit data in real-time to CPCB, and to automatically alert regulators in the event of an emission exceedance. Such measures are being initiated by CPCB, although the lack of sufficient resources appears to limit their ability to fully address the problem, including full implementation and follow-up." The team recommended that the ministries of health and environment coordinate and formulate policies considering the effects of air pollution on human health and that air quality standards be defined based on epidemiological studies specifically from India.

"It was also recommended that CPCB should consider adding a PM2.5 speciation network to enable tracking air pollution and its composition over time and help link pollutants to sources. Lack of good data quality undermines the value of the data and trust of the public," the report added.

Finally, they said the Indian government should consider expanding its initiative on "Digital India" to include an online data portal for air quality and health data. "We have made our recommendations. Now, we are not sure if or how these will be implemented or whether studies will continue," said professor Manju Mohan of Centre for Atmospheric Sciences at IIT Delhi who is also the India lead on the Indo-US project.

Another US-based scientist, who was part of the project briefly, said: "It's unlikely that there will be anymore funding for his project from US. But cooperation with US EPA would have been important in putting control systems in place." There was no discussion on air quality this time when PM Modi visited President Trump.

 
SOURCE : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/delhi-doesnt-come-close-to-meeting-us-pollution-standards-on-most-days/articleshow/59623935.cms
 


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