Open Forum

New Delhi, 19 May 2015

Air Quality Index

WILL DATA GOAD ACTION?

By Dhurjati Mukherjee

The Prime Minister recently launched a national air quality index (AQI), joining a global league of nations, which include the US, France, China and Mexico that have implemented such an alert system. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has developed the index in consultation with IIT, Kanpur and other expert groups, comprising medical professionals and scientists. The system will give details of air quality and information on its likely implications to the health of city dwellers.

The AQI will initially be available to people in 10 cities – Delhi, Faridabad, Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow, Varanasi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. Within a few months, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chandigarh will come under the national network, when their pollution control boards are ready with the new and updated round-the-clock monitoring system. 

The central agencies have taken into account sight pollutants – PM 2.5, Pm 10, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, ammonia and lead – in calculating and releasing the AQI. The move is expected to not only enhance public awareness but also create a competitive environment among cities to take concrete steps. Will it yield results at the end, is the big question.

The problem of air pollution has been compounded in recent years and findings by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) confirmed that it is not just carcinogenic but exposure to outdoor air pollution causes lung cancer. The panel classified air pollution, including tiny inhalable particles called particulate matter in the same category of proven carcinogens as tobacco.

In India, air pollution is the fifth leading cause of death after high blood pressure, indoor air pollution, tobacco smoking and poor nutrition with about 6,20,00 premature deaths occurring from such pollution-related diseases. The main sources of such outdoor pollution are vehicle emissions, thermal power plants, industrial and agricultural emissions and indoor heating and cooking. This has been increasing very rapidly and the country had the worst air quality, as per various studies, including by Yale University. Amongst 132 countries assessed, Kolkata and Delhi are among the world’s worst polluted cities and hence have the highest levels of premature deaths.   

The Centre for Science & Environment too found that in 227 cities and towns nearly half the country’s urban population is exposed to air with particulate matter levels higher than safe limits. In Kolkata and Delhi new lung cancer cases among men were the highest -- 16.8 and 13.9 per one lakh population respectively, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Chennai and Bangalore followed with 12.6 and 10.8 while that of women was 5 in Kolkata, Bangalore 4.6, Delhi 4.2 and Chennai 4.2 per one lakh population. 

The revelations are indeed a cause for concern but efforts in this direction are far from satisfactory. While many PILs have been filed and directions given by some High Courts, and the Supreme Court, both Centre and State governments have done precious little, possibly because larger and powerful interests are involved.

Shockingly, these finding are nothing new as the Community Environment Monitoring (CEM) report of June 2006 titled ‘Smokescreen Ambient Air Quality in India’ found that the country is “pathetically behind in terms of infrastructure to safeguard its environment or health of people from air pollution”. Its air pollution monitoring is primitive and the world’s fourth largest economy has no standards for most of the toxic and commonly found air pollutants. The report warned the air was unfit to breathe!    

Automobile emissions of particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen and sulphur account for more than 60 per cent of air pollution load in our cities. Automobilization has led to critical SPM levels, exceeding one-and-a-half times of the permissible standard in the 57 per cent of monitored Indian cities. So pervasive is the phenomenon that even smaller cities have become its victim. India’s top ten hotspots include Raipur, Kanpur, Alwar and Indore not to mention the congested metropolises.   

Delhi, the first city to implement clean air initiatives, still has critical levels of RSPM and SPM in the residential areas, since 2000 when the number of vehicles figured 30 lakh. Obviously, the 15 lakh new vehicles that were added to the capital’s roads have to shoulder the blame for the current situation. Moreover, a jump in registration of diesel vehicles led to an increase in the level of nitrogen oxide in 2006 to even higher than the pre-1995 era, when pollutants had chocked Delhi.          

India’s financial capital, Mumbai where RSPM level showed an upward trend since 2003, has taken the pollution level above the national standard of 60 ug/m3. In Kolkata, Agra and Lucknow, the particulate matter witnessed a slight upward trend. The situation is worrisome in Kolkata with RSPM 1.5 times above national standards because of inadequate road space, which are poorly maintained, and the entry of innumerable numbers of highly pollutant commercial vehicles inside the city. In fact, automobiles contribute 30 per cent to the city’s air pollution load.           

Air pollution has affected a significant section of the population, with an increase in cardiovascular and other diseases, including asthma, bronchitis and also lung cancer. It is known that oxides of sulphur and nitrogen cause breathing problems while carbon monoxide hampers oxygen transport in the body. In the lungs, oxygen gets attached to the haemoglobin present in the blood. When carbon monoxide is inhaled, it combines with haemoglobin to form carboxy-haemoglobin. As a result, less haemoglobin is available for transporting oxygen. This causes headaches and, in extreme cases, death.    

According to a recent study conducted by Heal foundation and Breathe Blue as part of Clean Air India Movement(CLAIM), launched across the country this month, children who travel in uncovered vehicles have been the worst affected. In Delhi alone, 92 per cent of children using uncovered vehicles fared ‘poor’ as against just 8 per cent of those who travelled in covered vehicles. The data for other cities are Mumbai (79 per cent uncovered and 21 per cent covered), Bangalore (86 per cent covered and 14 per cent covered) and Kolkata (65 per cent covered and 35 per cent covered).

It has been found that children suffer most if they breathe polluted air as their lungs are still in a developing stage. Experts at the Institute of Pulmocare and Research, Kolkata, stated that it has been seen that proximity to pollution increases the chances of lung disorders and reduces the efficiency of the organs. The growth in the number of vehicles in Kolkata – as also in other metros – has resulted in the number of children with lung disorders increasing.

Controlling air quality is thus imperative at this juncture and the start of the air quality index is a good beginning. More rigid regulatory standards need to be maintained and the CPCB should join hands with the State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) to ensure that air quality is closely monitored and fines imposed strictly on all agencies and individuals for violation of rules and environmental standards. In urban centres, more efficient and non-polluting public transport as also non-mechanized modes needs to be promoted. If Paris can have 200 km of bicycle paths with 250,000 people using them, so can Delhi, Mumbai or Kolkata? ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)