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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Delhi's Air Quality Alarming: Study

Delhi's Air Quality Alarming: Study

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published Published on Feb 6, 2014   modified Modified on Feb 6, 2014
-Outlook


Delhi faces frequent pollution emergency which could lead to health hazards, a recent study has found after the city's air quality was monitored on the same benchmark as that of Beijing or United States.

A study by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) conducted between October 1, 2013 and January 31, reviewed the state of air quality reporting by monitoring agencies in Delhi and Beijing.

"If we apply the air quality classification and health alert system of Beijing or the US to Delhi this winter, this city would be in a frequent state of pollution emergency requiring contingency action," said Anumita Roychowdhury, head of CSE's air pollution control team.

The study also found that during a majority of days during this period, the levels of atmospheric particulate matter (PM 2.5) in Delhi exceeded the standard by four to seven times and on two occasions (December 18 and January 5) exceeded by 10 and eight times respectively.

The data came after the CSE reviewed daily 24 hour average PM2.5 levels from three monitoring stations at R K Puram, Mandir Marg and Punjabi Bagh.

The CSE also analysed extent of daily level of exceeding and found that Delhi met the standard only on three days.

"On 41 days (33 per cent of days monitored in winter), daily levels were 500 per cent higher than the standard. On 17 days (14 per cent of days monitored), the levels were higher than 350 microgramme per cum which is close to the highest reported by IITM-SAFAR for January," the report said.

Officials pointed out that other governments monitor air quality to inform citizens about health risks and take emergency action.

It was found that when CSE applied the criteria of air quality classification of Beijing and the US and their health alert systems to daily pollution levels in Delhi, only one day out of the total number of days monitored during last four months qualified as excellent.

Similarly CSE also found when the US air quality health alert system was applied to Delhi's winter pollution, there was not a single day with good air quality.

CSE maintained that after reviewing the action taken over time by the two cities, it found that a lot more is happening in Beijing compared to Delhi despite the fact that both the cities had started aggressively around the same time in 2000.

It found that both the cities had geared up to meet the air quality benchmark for the big games events- Olympics in Beijing in 2008 and Commonwealth Games, 2010 in Delhi.

"Both the cities have not solved the problem yet. But Beijing has kept the momentum of action going. Delhi has lost the steam," CSE claimed.

It added that a look at the first generation action in two cities between 1998-2008, it was found that Delhi-Beijing were neck to neck but Beijing had moved ahead of Delhi when second generation action in two cities post 2008-2014 is seen.

While post 2008, despite new steps like extension of metro system, increasing bus numbers close to 6,000 and introduction of Euro IV standards in 2010, Delhi's scale and stringency was found to be missing, Beijing's has been found to more strident.

The report said Beijing apart from taking a host of other steps had even gone to the extent of capping the number of cars that can be sold in a year- initially fixed the number of cars to be sold annually to 240,000. This year onwards this limit will be lowered to 150,000 new licenses annually, the report said.


Outlook, 5 February, 2014, http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=827760


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