Kolkata air quality fails safety test

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

The city has always been polluted but the rate at which its level is increasing has turned menacing. A series of tests of ambient air quality at five crossings — carried out by TOI in association with Saviors and Friends of Environment (SAFE) last week — has found some startling facts. It calls for greater monitoring and stringent enforcement against polluting vehicles.

Fine particulates and nitrogen oxides dominate the list of major pollutants in the city air. The annual average of PM10 — fine particulate matter that invades the lungs and triggers respiratory diseases and cancer — has been around 1.5 times, or even more, the national limit. The annual average of nitrogen oxides is also above the limit, test results revealed.

“The particulate pollution in winter is generally twice or even higher than the national standard. But we are getting the same reading in spring, when the pollution level goes down due to weather conditions. This is something to worry about. It shows the vehicular pollution goes rather unchecked,” said Sudipta Bhattacharya, an environmentalist and head of SAFE.

Even more dangerous is the presence of finer particulates PM2.5 that constitutes around 75% of the total respirable particulate matter in the air. “Though we have not measured it, the high level of PM10 also indicates high level of PM2.5. The PM2.5 count by the American Consulate also shows the alarming state of the ambient air,” he added.

But monitoring of ambient air has got a beating with the number of air quality monitoring stations declining from 17 to 11. Of these, only two automated stations — at Victoria Memorial Hall and Rabindra Bharati University — take readings 24×7. The other nine manual stations at Ultadanga, Moulali, Baishnabghata, Salt Lake, Minto Park, Paribesh Bhawan, Dunlop Bridge, Shyambazar and Behala Chowrasta are operated only twice a week.

“Despite a court order directing all air quality monitoring stations be in operation, the pollution board continues to keep most of the stations shut for a major part of the week. Moreover, with numbers being reduced, fewer parts of the city’s air is being monitored. With no data, there is no warning to citizens who are breathing the toxic fumes,” said legal activist Subhas Datta, whose petition on air pollution led to the court directive.

PCB chairman Kalyan Rudra acknowledges the need for more monitoring stations to cover a larger section of the city but points to two eternal hurdles: manpower and funds. “We are trying to get around the stumbling blocks and widen coverage,” he said. In fact, SAFE readings echo the central pollution control board study which finds greater Kolkata as the topper in nitrogen-oxide pollution. On certain days, the presence of these pollutants spikes twice, putting the air we breathe in the category of “extremely critical”.

A closer scrutiny of the study revealed that pollution level becomes quite unbearable where the Metro corridor is being constructed. In Ruby and Behala Chowrasta, where an elevated Metro corridor is under construction, the level of particulate matter is quite high. Particularly at Behala Chowrasta, the particulate matter is 3.5 times the national standard.

via Kolkata air quality fails safety test – The Times of India.

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Beijing introduces new air pollution response

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

Beijing introduced new rules to deal with air pollution on Monday.

According to the city’s environmental protection bureau, the new heavy air pollution emergency response program will replace the current version, launched on Oct. 2013.

Four-tier alerts–blue, yellow, orange and red–will be issued on “heavy pollution” days. Red alert, the highest, will be issued for heavy pollution that is expected to last more than three days. An air quality index of over 200 is defined as “heavy pollution”.

Orange and red alerts will be issued 24 hours before the heavy pollution days, according to Yao Hui, deputy head of the bureau.

Drivers with odd and even license plates will be allowed on alternating days during red alerts.

Heavy vehicles including construction vehicles will be banned from the roads during orange or red alerts.

When an orange alert is issued, all the industrial factories will be closed except those necessary to maintain the operation of the city. Construction sites will be shut down.

In 2014, Beijing issued blue alert 11 times, yellow alert five times, and orange alerts twice.

via Beijing introduces new air pollution response – CCTV News – CCTV.com English.

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Luxembourg and Lisbon prop up air pollution list

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

Luxembourg and Lisbon have come last in a ranking of European cities, which rates efforts to fight air pollution caused by transport.

Zurich topped the Sootfree Cities ranking, which grades the efforts of 23 cities in 16 countries to improve air quality. Copenhagen was the runner-up.

Berlin was the winner in 2011, the last time the ranking was published by the European Environmental Bureau and Friends of the Earth Germany. It slipped to fifth this year. London and Paris were equal, at sixth place.

There are 400,000 premature deaths in the EU every year because of air pollution, which kills ten times more people than road accidents. Swiss air quality standards are far stricter then those in the EU.

The report showed progress in cutting back dangerous PM10 (Fine Dust) particles and nitrogenic oxide concentrations in the air.

“Although 90% of Europeans living in cities today are still breathing unhealthy air, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Vienna (and) Berlin have either met, or are due to meet, the EU limit values within the next two years,” Arne Fellermann, transport policy officer at Friends of the Earth Germany, said.

Researchers concentrated on measures put in place over the last five years and looked at air quality plans for the next five. They looked at categories such as the promotion of sustainable transport, traffic management, public procurement and other parts of the policy mix.

EU level

Cities across Europe were fighting air pollution because of the EU’s air quality standards, said Fellermann, but there was not enough action at EU level.

Louise Duprez, senior policy officer for Air Pollution at the European Environmental Bureau said,  “Cities can do a lot to improve air quality, but they are left exposed to some pollution they can’t control. This includes pollution which comes from outside the city, like emissions from agriculture or industry.”

The EU’s overall air pollution limits for 2020, 2025 and 2030 needed to be tightened, the campaigners said. That would cut long-distance pollution, which cities are helpless to deal with.

The limits, part of the National Emissions Ceilings Directive, are currently being discussed by policymakers. Members of the European Parliament will debate the limits ahead of a vote in mid-July.

Other legislation should reflect the emissions of road vehicles under real driving conditions and introduce strict norms that limit emissions from construction machinery, according to the NGOs.

Cutting cars

Zurich and Copenhagen had substantially reduced the number of cars in their cities. Restrictions on highly-polluting vehicles and construction machines were introduced.

Cleaner forms of transport, such as cycling and walking, were pushed by city policymakers, the report by European Environmental Bureau and Friends of the Earth Germany, said.

But Luxembourg was a “highly car centric city with a staggeringly high shares of 72.5% car or motorcycle use.”

It had not introduced any low emission zones or a congestion charge, despite an OECD recommendation to do so.

Lisbon has high pollution levels consistently above EU limit values.  Although it introduced a low emission zone, there was virtually no enforcement until 2014.

Watch this video about levels of air pollution in Brussels’ EU quarter. Brussels was ranked 14 on the list.

via Luxembourg and Lisbon prop up air pollution list | EurActiv.

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Spike In California Air Pollution Brings Reminder Of Bad Old Days

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

The brown haze over California’s San Joaquin Valley breadbasket on some winter days has been an unwelcome reminder of the bad old days, when pollution hung so thickly that people were warned to stay inside.

Years of tight environmental rules improved California air quality so much that the state has not issued a smog alert in a dozen years. But prolonged drought and warmer temperatures have triggered a spike in the number of winter days thick with soot and dirt, while summer days have been marred by smog.

“It’s shocking sometimes to see the valley on a bad day,” said Mike Kleeman, a professor at the University of California, Davis, who studies air quality.

The uptick in pollution over California’s cities and farms is not enough to undo decades of environmental progress against smog, which is characterized by high levels of ozone in the atmosphere caused by an interaction of heat with pollutants.

But Karen Magliano, chief of the state’s Air Quality Planning and Sciences Division, said it has caused California to miss a key federal deadline for improving the air in the San Joaquin Valley, and could lead the state to tighten rules on emissions from cars, trucks, factories and even backyard barbecues.

“We’re tracking it very closely,” Magliano said.

Last summer, California was out of compliance with federal ozone rules for 99 days in the San Joaquin Valley, up from 89 the year before. Sooty particulates, which cause brown haze in the late fall and winter, were up throughout the state last winter.

Rain helped ameliorate the problem of particulates this past winter, but the storms, though intense, have been relatively few.

For December 2014-February 2015, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which covers Los Angeles, reported 24 days that failed to meet federal pollution rules. That was up from 19 days during the same three months in 2013-2014, and 16 in 2012-2013, state figures show.

To be sure, California air remains much cleaner today than in 1975, when authorities issued 120 Stage 1 smog alerts that warned the elderly and young children they might have trouble breathing, and urged people with heart and respiratory problems to stay inside.

The state’s last Stage 1 alert was issued in 2003, and California has not had a stage 3 alert – the worst – since 1974.

“We are continuing to make progress but we are going to continue to have bad years when the weather is unfavorable for us,” said Kleeman. “What last winter showed is that we’re still vulnerable to those events.”

Smog has been a problem in California since at least 1943, when residents of Los Angeles sometimes could not see for more than three blocks and suffered burning eyes.

The haze was first blamed on a chemical factory. But the problem did not diminish when the plant was shuttered, and scientists later realized the bad air was caused by a combination of geography, weather and emissions from factories and a burgeoning number of cars.

California enacted its first air quality standards in 1959 and decades of restrictions on emissions meant the state led the nation in cleaning its air.

via Spike In California Air Pollution Brings Reminder Of Bad Old Days.

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Smog is no excuse not to go for a run – it’s still better than sitting at home

Posted on March 30, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

Going for a run or cycling in a built-up area is still better for you than not exercising at all – despite the pollution, claims a new study.

Researchers concluded that air pollution should not be an excuse for sitting around at home when you could be working up a sweat outdoors.

And there were 20 per cent fewer deaths among those who exercised, despite pollution, than those who didn’t.

A team from Copenhagen University in Denmark decided to look at the fact that exercise is good for you whilst inhaling air pollution isn’t.

Study lead author Associate Professor Zorana Jovanovic Andersen, of the Centre for Epidemiology and Screening at the University of Copenhagen, said: “The beneficial effects of exercise are more important for our health than the negative effects of air pollution, in relation to the risk of premature mortality.

“In other words, benefits of exercise outweigh the harmful effects of air pollution.

“Even for those living in the most polluted areas of Copenhagen, it is healthier to go for a run, a walk or to cycle to work than it is to stay inactive.

“It is well known that physical activity reduces, while air pollution increases the risk of premature mortality.

“Physical activity amplifies respiratory intake and accumulation of air pollutants in our lungs, which may increase the harmful effects of air pollution during exercise.

“But despite the adverse effects of air pollution on health, air pollution should be not perceived as a barrier to exercise in urban areas.”

The researchers looked at 52,061 subjects, aged 50-65 years, from the two main cities Aarhus and Copenhagen, who participated in a larger study called Diet, Cancer and Health.

From 1993-97, they reported on their physical leisure activities, including sports, cycling to and from work and in their leisure time, gardening and walking.

The researchers then estimated air pollution levels from traffic at their residential addresses.

A total of 5,500 participants died before 2010, and the researchers observed about 20% fewer deaths among those who exercised than among those who didn’t exercise, even for those who lived in the most polluted areas, in central Copenhagen and Aarhus, or close to busy roads and highways.

The findings, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, is the first large population-based, prospective cohort study that has examined the joint effects of both physical activity and air pollution on mortality. It is based on high quality data on both physical activity and air pollution exposure.

Associate Prof Andersen added: “Air pollution is often perceived as a barrier to exercise in urban areas. In the face of an increasing health burden due to rising physical inactivity and obesity in modern societies, our findings provide support for efforts in promoting exercise, even in urban areas with high pollution.

“However, we would still advise people to exercise and cycle in green areas, parks, woods, with low air pollution and away from busy roads, when possible.”

She added: “It is also important to note that these results pertain to Denmark and sites with similar air pollution levels, and may not necessary be true in cities with several fold higher air pollution levels, as seen in other parts of the world.”

via Smog is no excuse not to go for a run – it’s still better than sitting at home – Telegraph.

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Ozone Air Pollution Could Harm Women’s Fertility

Posted on March 30, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

Many urban and suburban areas have high levels of ground-level ozone, an air pollutant that can adversely affect lung and heart health. New research in mice suggests breathing high levels of ozone could also affect women’s ability to conceive.

In some areas, ozone can reach high levels in the summer because the bright sunlight and heat combine with compounds from industrial emissions, car exhaust, and gasoline vapors to form the air pollutant. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency uses the color-coded air quality index to communicate daily levels of air pollutants including ozone. Groups considered most vulnerable during high-pollution days currently include children, the elderly and people with asthma. If the new research findings hold up in people, it might be necessary to add women of reproductive age to that list of vulnerable groups.

“It is important that we know what is in the air we breathe and understand how it can affect our health,” said Patricia Silveyra, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine and leader of the research team. “We don’t know a lot about the damaging effects of ozone, but since it does increase inflammation in the lungs, it is possible that this inflammation could affect more than one system in the human body.”

Silveyra and her team were studying sex differences in the effects of ozone on lung inflammation in mice when they discovered that short exposures to ozone affected female levels of progesterone, a major reproductive hormone involved in ovulation and pregnancy. To examine this further, they designed an experiment in which female mice were exposed to 2 parts per million (ppm) of ozone for 3 hours on the day the mice were expected to ovulate. Other studies have shown that this level of exposure in mice is roughly analogous to a person breathing high levels of ozone in a city.

“We found that breathing ozone on the day of ovulation not only decreased progesterone levels in female mice, but also reduced the number of ovulated eggs,” explained Carla R. Caruso, M.D, a resident physician at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine who will present this research at the American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP) Annual Meeting during the Experimental Biology 2015 meeting. “In addition, this acute exposure to ozone affected important brain and ovarian signaling events that are key for the ovulation process.”

The levels of progesterone in the blood of female mice on the day of ovulation decreased from a normal value of 8 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) in females breathing filtered air, to an average of 2 ng/ml in mice breathing ozone. When the investigators compared the number of ovulated eggs the following morning, they found a statistically significant reduction of 30 percent in females exposed to ozone. Moreover, expression of key enzymes involved in the progesterone synthesis pathway was also significantly reduced in the ovaries of ozone-exposed female mice.

Based on their findings, the researchers postulate that women in large cities could experience fertility issues from inhaling high concentrations of ground-level ozone. However, they caution that their findings are preliminary and that the research involved only mice, not people.

“Population studies evaluating fertility complications in geographical areas with high and low ozone pollution levels, as well as clinical studies conducted in women of reproductive age can help elucidate these concerns,” Silveyra said.

The researchers are now working to understand the mechanisms of ozone’s effects on ovulation in mice.

via Ozone Air Pollution Could Harm Women’s Fertility.

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Central, southern Taiwan battling hazardous air pollution

Posted on March 30, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) issued an air pollution alert Sunday for central and southern Taiwan and the Kinmen islands off southern China, saying particulate concentrations were at levels that could affect people’s health.

The index for PM2.5 particulates, which are considered particularly hazardous to health, were at middle to high levels in central and southern Taiwan areas, meaning that people with vulnerable cardiovascular and respiratory systems should not go outside, EPA data showed.

PM2.5 concentrations were at their highest in Lunbei, Taixi and Mailiao townships in Yunlin County and Erlin in Changhua County at over 71 milligrams per cubic meter, suggesting that outdoor activity should be avoided if possible, the data showed.

In the front-line islands of Kinmen and Matsu, PM2.5 levels were in a middle range of 42-47 milligrams per cubic meter, due to offshore pollution, the EPA said.

A measurement of 35 milligrams per cubic meter or lower is considered “low range.”

via Central, southern Taiwan battling hazardous air pollution | Society | FOCUS TAIWAN – CNA ENGLISH NEWS.

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Respro® Masks FAQ: Are the filters interchangeable?

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

FILTER IN MASKARE THE FILTERS INTERCHANGEABLE?

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For more FAQ,  see Respro® Mask FAQ

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