India launches air quality index to warn over dangerous pollution events

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

India launched an index on Friday to measure air quality across the country, which is home to some of the most polluted cities in the world.

It will measure eight major pollutants that impact respiratory health in cities with populations exceeding one million in the next five years and then gradually the rest of the country, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters. The Air Quality Index will warn residents when pollution levels shoot past dangerous levels.

The World Health Organisation said earlier this year that the Indian capital had the worst air quality in the world, surpassing Beijing, a statement that New Delhi has vehemently disputed.

Air monitoring sensors around the landlocked Indian capital routinely register levels of small airborne particles at “hazardous” levels, especially in winter. The levels are three to four times New Delhi’s own sanctioned limit, rivalling Beijing.Like the Chinese capital, New Delhi has gone through rapid economic development, raising living standards but also spewing out pollution.

Decades of policies that favoured economic decisions over environmental concerns have taken their toll. The numbers of cars on the roads of New Delhi have doubled in the last decade and years of booming construction has kicked up countless clouds of dust.

Javadekar said it wouldn’t be “business as usual anymore” and the government was committed to improving air quality as part of a cleanliness drive launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this month.

There are various ways to measure pollution, but comparisons have generally focused on the microscopic particulate matter, sometimes called black carbon or soot, which can lodge in a person’s lungs and fester over time.

In New Delhi, levels of PM10 — particulate matter that is 10 micrometers in size — touched 400 micrograms per cubic meter last winter. That’s four times the city’s legal limit of 100, and well above the World Health Organisation’s recommended limit of 20.

While the Chinese capital acts aggressively on high pollution days — closing schools and factories and taking government vehicles off the road — India doesn’t have a warning mechanism and until a few years ago the matter was hardly ever discussed.

The index will measure levels of PM10 and the even tinier PM2.5 as well six other indicators, including lead, ammonia, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide, and then calculate overall pollution. The warning levels would be colour-coded and come with specific health warnings that could be easily understood by lay people, Javadekar said.

The index will be up for review on the ministry’s website for 45 days to seek public opinion before it is functional.

Advocacy and research group Center for Science and Environment lauded the announcement but said in a statement that the measure needed to be rolled out quickly to protect public health.

via India launches air quality index to warn over dangerous pollution events | Environment | theguardian.com.

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Review: RUN AND RIDE SAFELY IN LONDON WITH RESPRO® by Heart London Magazine

Posted on October 19, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

UK Air London: A real problem, or just a trend?  Respro® launches new range of street-style pollution masks

2014 has brought Saharan dust and increased toxic air quality reports to the UK and earlier this year, London suffered serious smog problems that led to warnings for vulnerable people, including children, the elderly and those with respiratory illnesses, to stay indoors for days.

In response to the ever-deteriorating air quality both here and world wide, Respro®has launched a new line of Skins™ pollution masks, the company’s most fashionable line to date.  The idea behind it is to introduce a style element for the wearer: instead of feeling alienated by wearing a mask, it becomes a fashion accessory with a statement.

Wearing a mask as a cycle commuter or a city runner will provide some protection to a user’s lungs and the new Respro® Skins™ range enables the wearer to match their style and complement their active wardrobe.

Respro® founder and mask inventor Harry Cole comments; “Much has been written about the UK’s deteriorating air quality over the past months and at times the hype may seem impure.  But when we see a noticeable haze sitting atop the London skyline when viewed from Primrose Hill or Brockwell Park and note a heaviness in our lungs when breathing on those hazy days, for us there’s no question that the quality of London’s air is getting worse. “

To see the new Skins™ range and how they can now be personalised, go to:

http://respro.com/pollution-masks/skins

via HEALTH AND FITNESS – Run and Ride safely in London with Respro | Heart London Magazine.

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Beijing air pollution forces marathon runners to wear masks

Posted on October 19, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

Despite heavy pollution blanketing Beijing, an international marathon went ahead Sunday, with face masks and sponges among the equipment used by competitors to battle the smog.

The 34th Beijing International Marathon began at Tiananmen Square with many of the tens of thousands of participants wearing face masks. The 42-kilometre course ended at the Chinese capital’s Olympic Park.

An update Saturday night on the official microblog of the marathon, which is hosted by the Chinese Athletic Association and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sports, said “there might be slight or moderate smog.” It asked competitors to pay attention to the conditions and to take measures according to their own health, and advised the elderly and people with respiratory diseases to carefully consider whether to participate.

About 30,000 people were expected to take part in the marathon and the half-marathon. The organizing committee made 140,000 sponges available at supply stations along the marathon route so runners could “clean their skin that is exposed to the air,” the Beijing News reported.

Air severely polluted

The air Sunday was deemed severely polluted, according to the real-time monitoring of Beijing’s environmental centre. It was the most serious level on China’s air quality index, and came with a warning for children, the elderly and the sick to stay indoors, and for everyone to avoid outdoor activities.

The U.S. Embassy, which tracks the Beijing air from a monitoring station on its roof and uses a different air quality index, said the air was hazardous. It gave a reading of 344 micrograms per cubic metre of PM2.5 particulate matter. The World Health Organization considers 25 micrograms within a 24-hour period a safe level.

China’s pollution is notorious following years of rapid economic development. Combating the problem has shot up the agenda of the ruling Communist Party, which is under pressure from citizens who are tired of breathing smog.

The marathon’s organizing committee said late Saturday that postponing the event would be difficult because of all the planning that had gone into it, and asked competitors to understand, the Beijing News reported. It said 46 per cent of the competitors had travelled from abroad and other parts of China to take part.

via Beijing air pollution forces marathon runners to wear masks – World – CBC News.

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Heavy air pollution affects 16.8 million Spaniards

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

A THIRD of the Spanish population are breathing air above European-wide pollution levels.

More than 16.8 million people – 36% of the population – have been exposed to dangerous levels of pollutants, with diesel engines being the main source.

Green group Ecologists in Action has also warned that 95% of Spaniards have been exposed to unhealthy pollution levels, taking into account the stricter recommendations made by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

“International health authorities estimate the number of premature deaths [in Spain] to be 20,000 a year,” due to complications arising from air pollution, said Miguel Angel Ceballos, one of the report coordinators.

via Heavy air pollution affects 16.8 million Spaniards.

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Why India’s numbers on air quality can’t be trusted

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

A survey this May by the World Health Organisation ranked Delhi as the world’s most polluted city, under assault from its growing vehicle population, rising emissions from coal based thermal power plants and the surrounding areas. The outcome: according to the Central Pollution Control Board CPCB, which oversees pollution control in India, 43.5 per cent of children in the Capital have reduced lung function and breathing problems.

It could be, it probably is, worse as the WHO findings are largely based on official numbers. And India’s air-quality numbers, in how they are measured, are a pretence in the name of protecting citizens.

An illustration of this is India’s experience in measuring PM 2.5: airborne particles less than 2.5 microns in size. Small enough to penetrate deep into our lungs and bloodstreams, they have been connected to lung cancer and heart attacks. Studies show there is no safe level of PM 2.5, though CPCB terms as “safe” readings up to 60 ig/m3. On October 12, a Sunday, between 3 pm and 4 pm, ITO in New Delhi had a PM 2.5 reading of 206.

In 2009, the ministry of environment and CPCB directed state governments to track PM 2.5. What happened next is one reason why India’s air-quality data cannot be trusted.

Race To The Bottom

In 2009, hardly any companies manufactured PM 2.5 instruments in India. Called ‘high-volume samplers’, these suck in a fixed quantity of air and eliminate all but the 2.5 particles. “Till 2009, we used to sell about 10-30 instruments a year, mostly to research organisations,” says Rakesh Agarwal, managing director of Envirotech, one of the first companies in this space in India.

That changed with the PM 2.5 directive. As a market for 2.5 samplers emerged, new companies, mostly started by ex-employees of companies like Envirotech, came up.

Price warfare began. In 2009, Agarwal says, the price of a good instrument was Rs 1.5 lakh, the best ones cost Rs. 2-2.5 lakh. By 2010 itself, “the price fell to Rs 60,000,” says a former CPCB official who now runs his own environmental consultancy and spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Some of the newer companies do not even have a production facility,” adds Rajkumar Singh, AGM (marketing, environment) at Spectro Lab Equipments, an Okhla-based company which makes samplers. “They go to lathe makers, give them the specs and ask them to make these machines.”

Although the government mandates companies to adhere to specifications defined by the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA), India doesn’t have standards of its own, it doesn’t check if these samplers measure what they claim to. Manufacturers self-certify.

Managers at two such companies told ET that they match quality but work on lower margins. Counters Agarwal, the raw material cost alone of such an instrument is 40-50 per cent of its price. Another 10-15 per cent would be labour cost, with the rest going to administrative expenses and margins.

He cites a check the CPCB undertook about twoand-a-half years ago, when it compared some India-made PM 2.5 samplers with international ones. “There was a 100 per cent difference in readings,” says Agarwal. Some were leaking air from the sides, others were letting in lesser air than stipulated. “If I expect the air input to be 20 litres per minute, but get just 16 litres, my PM 2.5 count will be lower.”

via Why India’s numbers on air quality can’t be trusted – Economic Times.

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Hong Kong’s air quality to worsen as pollutant PM2.5 hits ‘unhealthy’ levels

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

The air quality in Hong Kong is expected to worsen later today after pollution readings hit “very high” and “high” in various areas, the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) warned on Wednesday.

The air quality health index (AQHI) – which measures the risk of hospital admissions due to air pollutants – hit “very high” levels in Central, Yuen Long in the New Territories and Tap Mun Island off northeastern Sai Kung.

The remaining 12 monitoring stations across the city recorded “high” readings.

The highest warning on the index is “serious” – and the last time Hong Kong hit that reading was on June 8 and again on September 19, two of the smoggiest days of the year.

The EPD said abundant sunshine heightens photochemical smog formation, a chemical process in which nitrogen oxides (emitted from combustion sources such as car exhaust) combine with volatile organic compounds to form ground-level ozone.

Hong Kong was forecast to have sunny weather with light winds.

The department advised people, including the elderly, children and persons with heart and respiratory diseases to reduce outdoor activities.

AQICN.org, which monitors air quality around the world, gave an air quality index reading of 158 for Hong Kong, deemed as “unhealthy”.

The Central and Western districts, Mong Kok, Causeway Bay, Kwun Tong and Sham Shui Po all recorded unhealthy readings of PM2.5, a hazardous air pollutant that can enter the lungs.

via Hong Kong’s air quality to worsen as pollutant PM2.5 hits ‘unhealthy’ levels | South China Morning Post.

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Heart risk for the women who live near busy roads: Air pollution increases chance of dying by up to 38%

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

Living near a busy road is as likely to cause a fatal heart attack as being obese or a smoker, warns a new study.

Researchers suspect damaging air particles from traffic pollution could be behind the phenomenon.

A study of 107,130 women with an average age of 60 showed those whose homes were within 50 metres (164 feet) of a major road increased the risk by 38 percent compared to being at least 500 metres (0.3 miles) away.

Each 100 metres (328 feet) closer to roadways was associated with a six per cent rise in danger.

During the course of the study the risk of dying from coronary heart disease also rose by 24 per cent for those living near a busy road.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimated 35 million people in the US lived within 300 metres (984 feet) of a major road in 2009 – and a growing number lived in close proximity to major roads worldwide.

The public’s exposure to major roadways is comparable to major sudden cardiac death risk factors, said researchers.

Previous research has found a modest increase in the risk of developing coronary heart disease among people who live near major roadways.

But the new study, published in the journal Circulation is believed to be the first to examine the impact of roadway proximity to the risk of a sudden heart attack.

Dr Jaime Hart, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the United States, said: ‘It’s important for healthcare providers to recognise environmental exposures may be under-appreciated risk factors for diseases such as sudden cardiac death and fatal coronary heart disease.

‘On a population level living near a major roadway was as important a risk factor as smoking, diet or obesity.’

The participants were part of the Nurses’ Health Study from 1986 to 2012 and the researchers calculated the distance of their residences to roadways. They also took into account other factors including age, race, cigarette smoking, physical activity and diet.

During the study there were 523 cases of sudden cardiac death and 1,159 cases of fatal coronary heart disease. Researchers weren’t able to measure all possible risk factors associated with living near a major road.

They also said more research is needed among men and among women of different ages, races and income levels because nearly all participants were middle-age to elderly, white and of middle- to upper-socioeconomic class.

Dr Hart said: ‘Regardless of where you live adopting heart-healthy habits such as maintaining a healthy weight, being physically active, eating nutritious foods, quitting smoking and managing stress can help decrease your risk of heart and blood vessel disease.

‘Our next step is to try to determine what specific exposures – such as air pollution – are driving the association between heart disease and major roadway proximity.’

via Heart risk for the women who live near busy roads: Air pollution increases chance of dying by up to 38%  | Daily Mail Online.

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Texas steps up monitoring for fracking air pollution

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

The state is responding to concerns about air pollution from fracking in South Texas.  The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, or TCEQ, is installing the first air monitoring station in the heart of the Eagle Ford Shale.

It will be located in Karnes County, where thousands of fracking wells have been drilled in the past few years.  Up until now the only monitoring station was at the outer edge of the Eagle Ford, in Floresville.  Over the summer researchers tried to measure how much of that air pollution is blowing up into San Antonio.  News 4 Trouble Shooter Jaie Avila was the only reporter to go along on that project, and now the results have been released.

A team of researchers from UT Austin spent 12 days driving around the Eagle Ford Shale taking air samples in a special air monitoring SUV.

“This is a Chevy Suburban that we have outfitted with equipment that measures air pollution,” said Dave Sullivan, who headed up the research team.

We went along as they took samples upwind and downwind from the heaviest oil and gas drilling areas.  They’re trying to determine if gases released during the fracking process, and emissions from the equipment, are drifting into San Antonio and increasing our ozone levels.

Ozone causes breathing problems for people with respiratory conditions.

“Knowing there are certain triggers that are going to trigger my asthma, that’s a big concern to me, a very big concern,” says Trish Perez, who takes breathing treatments for her asthma.

Now, about two-and-a-half months after Sullivan and his crew took their measurements, the TCEQ has released the results.

The researchers did find a big increase of hydrocarbons flowing into Bexar County from the Eagle Ford.  Hydrocarbons can come from storage tanks and pipelines.

However, they did not see an increase in the other ingredient needed to create ozone: nitrogen oxides.

That sounds like good news, but the researchers admit, just because they didn’t detect high levels of nitrogen oxides, doesn’t mean those emissions aren’t making it up to San Antonio and contributing to our air quality problems.

Nitrogen oxides, which come from vehicle and equipment exhaust, are hot and rise high into the air.  Sullivan says it’s possible they rose up and blew over the mobile monitor and into San Antonio.

That’s one reason environmental groups are skeptical of the research.“They can be up in the air, and then when they get into the city they can be reacting, with the hydrocarbons to form ozone.  Then you can see it at an ozone monitoring station, so that study has serious limitations to it,” said Neil Carman of the Sierra Club.

Opponents of fracking say much more thorough monitoring is needed to get a true picture of what the drilling boom is doing to our air.

The energy companies meanwhile say they’re trying to reduce emissions by switching to cleaner engines and equipment.  The TCEQ paid the UT researchers $100,000 to conduct the research.

via Texas steps up monitoring for fracking air pollution – WOAI News 4 San Antonio – Top Stories.

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