Cooler air blamed for PM2.5 rise

Posted on September 26, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

A cloud of ultra-fine dust particles known as PM2.5 has returned to Bangkok due to cooler temperatures, with air quality indicators across the capital registering unhealthy levels of the harmful micro pollutant.

According to the Pollution Control Department (PCD), the concentration of PM2.5 pollutants in Bang Phlat reached 53 microgrammes per cubic metre (µg/m³) yesterday — exceeding the PCD’s safe threshold of 50 µg/m³.

Air quality indicators in other areas in Bangkok and parts of Samut Prakan and Samut Sakhon also registered PM2.5 levels ranging between 40 µg/m³ on Charoen Nakhon Road in Khlong San district and 49 µg/m³ in Bang Sue district.

The PCD said PM2.5 levels are likely to increase in the next couple of days across the city, and warned residents about the health risks posed by the micro pollutant.

Officials said a high pressure system above China — which has lowered temperatures in the northern part of Thailand — is causing dust to accumulate as the air stagnates.

While Bangkok has not registered unhealthy levels of PM2.5 pollutants in the past several months, earlier in the year PM2.5 concentrations soared beyond unhealthy levels, prompting officials to adopt emergency measures — including spraying water from high-rise buildings.

A Palang Pracharath MP for Bangkok, Pada Vorakanon, on Wednesday urged the government to act before the situation turns critical.

“Why should we wait until that day comes — when masks and air filters become expensive because they are in such short supply that they’re next to impossible to get?” she said.

via Cooler air blamed for PM2.5 rise

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Indonesian forest fires putting 10 million children at risk, says Unicef

Posted on September 25, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

Millions aged under five are particularly at risk from the slash and burn fires due to undeveloped immune systems

Indonesian forest fires are putting nearly 10 million children at risk due to air pollution, the United Nations has warned.

The fires have been spewing toxic haze over south-east Asia in recent weeks, closing schools and airports, with people rushing to buy face masks and seek medical treatment for respiratory ailments.

Jakarta has deployed tens of thousands of personnel and water-bombing aircraft to tackle the slash-and-burn blazes that are set to clear agricultural land. The fires are an annual problem but this year is the worst since 2015 due to the dry weather.

On Tuesday, Greenpeace accused Indonesia of failing to impose serious penalties on pulpwood and palm oil firms that had large fires on their land between 2015 and 2018, with more fires on some of those farms also polluting the region’ this year.

“Many of the palm oil and pulp groups with the largest burned areas in their concessions have either not received any serious civil/administrative sanctions, or have had sanctions imposed that do not appear to fit with the level or frequency of burning,” the environmental action group said in its report.

Indonesia’s environment ministry said law enforcement had been “very strict” through administrative sanctions, including revoking licences and civil lawsuits.

Almost 10 million people under 18 – a quarter of them under five – live in the areas worst affected by fires on Indonesia’s Sumatra island and the country’s part of Borneo island, UN children’s agency Unicef said.

Small children are especially vulnerable due to undeveloped immune systems while babies born to mothers exposed to pollution during pregnancy may have problems such as low birth weight, the agency said.

“Poor air quality is a severe and growing challenge for Indonesia,” said Debora Comini from Unicef. “Every year, millions of children are breathing toxic air that threatens their health and causes them to miss school – resulting in lifelong physical and cognitive damage.”

Thousands of schools have been closed across Indonesia due to poor air quality, with millions of youngsters missing classes.

Pictures circulating on social media have shown the sky turning blood-red over hard-hit Jambi province, on Sumatra, in the middle of the day due to the haze.

Schools were forced to shut across Malaysia last week as smog from its neighbour clouded the skies, while Singapore was also shrouded in haze during the weekend’s Formula One motor race.

Air quality improved in Malaysia on Tuesday and was at “moderate” levels on an official index in most places with the skies looking largely clear, while the haze lifted from Singapore.

A regional forecasting centre said the number of “hotspots” – areas of intense heat detected by satellite which indicate a likely fire – had fallen sharply on Sumatra. Fires on the island are usually blamed for belching smog over Malaysia and Singapore.

There have been a series of wildfire outbreaks worldwide, from the Amazon to Australia, and scientists are increasingly worried about their impact on global warming.

via Indonesian forest fires putting 10 million children at risk, says Unicef | World news | The Guardian

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Ireland breaking WHO air quality directions

Posted on September 25, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned that Ireland needs to accelerate progress towards clean energy and environmentally-friendly transport options.

The agency made the recommendations in its Air Quality Report for 2018, which has been launched today to coincide with World Lung Day.

The report shows that while Ireland’s air quality complied with the legal minimums outlined by the European Union, the health-related guidelines outlined by the World Health Organization (WHO) were exceeded.

The WHO guidelines are the benchmark for global air quality globally and exceeding these is described as “a cause for concern” by the EPA.

The report was based on data gathered at 57 monitoring stations around Ireland. It showed that levels at the monitoring sites were below the EU legislative limit values in 2018.

However, Ireland was above WHO air quality guideline value levels at a number of monitoring sites for fine particulate matter, ozone and nitrogen dioxide, and was also above the European Environment Agency reference level for PAH, a toxic chemical, at three monitoring sites.

Transport emissions in urban areas and emissions from burning solid fuels for home heating are the primary issues when it comes to air quality in Ireland, according to the authors of the report.

Poor air quality can be a factor in a myriad of health issues, both short and long term.

These can range from issues like headaches and breathing difficulties to issues such as asthma, reduced liver function or cardiovascular disease. There are an estimated 1,180 premature deaths in Ireland per year due to air pollution.

The authors of the report raises particular concern regarding the levels of fine particles in our air. Levels of this pollutant are particularly high during the winter months due to the increased use of solid fuels, such as coal, peat and wood in-home heating. This is particularly acute in small towns and villages.

The EPA report notes that any movement along the spectrum of home heating choices and solid fuels towards cleaner modes will have a subsequent improvement on air quality.

The report also notes that, in urban areas, transport- related emissions of nitrogen dioxide are increasing and it looks probable that Ireland will exceed the EU annual legal limit value for nitrogen dioxide in the near future.

Launching the report, Micheál Lehane, director of the EPA’s office of Radiation Protection and Environmental Monitoring, said:

We all expect that the air we breathe is clean, but we cannot take this for granted. Air pollution is a major environmental risk to health, so it is now time to tackle the two key issues that impact negatively on air quality in Ireland: Transport emissions in large urban areas and emissions from burning of solid fuels.

“The choices we make affect the levels of pollution in the air we breathe. We need to decarbonise our public transport system and in general reduce our reliance on internal combustion vehicles. Moving to cleaner ways of heating our homes will also significantly improve air quality in our towns and cities.”

In its recommendations to improve air quality, the EPA said that people need to be encouraged “to move to using cleaner fuels, more efficient methods of using those fuels and with effective implementation and enforcement of the proposed nationwide ‘smoky’ coal ban can all help reduce air pollution”.

via Ireland breaking WHO air quality directions

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Is air pollution worsening kids’ mental health?

Posted on September 25, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

Cincinnati study finds fine particulate matter exposure linked to increased psychiatric-related emergency room visits for kids

Children exposed to high amounts of air pollution were more likely to end up in the emergency room for a mental health problem a couple days later than children with lower exposure, according to a new study.

The study, published today in Environmental Health Perspectives, is the first to examine short-term exposure to small particulate matter pollution and mental health effects in children, and found that pollution was linked to worsening mental health disorders just days after exposure.

It adds to growing evidence that dirty air may be causing and worsening depression, anxiety and other mental health issues in children and teenagers. Nearly 1 in 7 children and teens in the U.S. have a mental health condition, according to a 2018 study.

Researchers from the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati examined 13,176 emergency room visit to the Medical Center by 6,812 children from 2011 to 2015 for psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, suicidality, personality disorders and schizophrenia.

They then estimated the kids’ exposure to small particulate matter pollution (PM2.5) from the three days prior to their visit to the emergency room.

They found every 10 micrograms per cubic meter of increase in PM2.5 exposure was linked to a large jump in emergency room visits. “Notably, all daily exposures within our study domain were below the National Ambient Air Quality Standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” the authors wrote.

They saw an even stronger association between air pollution and emergency room visits from children living in poorer, high poverty neighborhoods.

“The fact that children living in high poverty neighborhoods experienced greater health effects of air pollution could mean that pollutant and neighborhood stressors can have synergistic effects on psychiatric symptom severity and frequency,” said lead author Cole Brokamp, a researcher and assistant professor in the University of Cincinnati Department of Pediatrics, in a statement.

Poverty causes stress, inflammation and harms normal brain and immune system development, the authors wrote, which could add to any potential air pollution impacts on mental health.

Growing evidence

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The study doesn’t prove air pollution causes or exacerbates mental health problems in children, but it is the latest research to suggest the association exists.

In August a large study of Danish and Americans found people exposed to high levels of air pollution have much greater odds of suffering from a psychiatric illness such as depression, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. In the Danish population, people with the highest exposures had 148 percent and 162 percent higher rates of schizophrenia and personality disorder, respectively.

In addition, two other recent Cincinnati children studies reported similar links: In May researchers found traffic-related air pollution was linked to higher anxiety in children, by measuring markers of the kids’ brain neuroinflammatory responses. And, in a companion study, they found traffic pollution was associated with more self-reported depression and anxiety in children.

“Collectively, these studies contribute to the growing body of evidence that exposure to air pollution during early life and childhood may contribute to depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems in adolescence,” said coauthor Patrick Ryan, a professor and researcher in the University of Cincinnati Department of Pediatrics, in a statement.

Instigating inflammation

It’s not entirely clear how air pollution could spur mental health issues, however, prior research in rodents shows exposure to pollution can cause inflammation and cell death in brain tissues—such changes can potentially lead to and worsen psychiatric disorders.

PM2.5—fine particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter and comprised of particles, gases, metals and other toxic chemicals —comes from traffic, power plants, fires and other sources. Given its small size it is good at infiltrating our bodies and is known to cause oxidative stress and inflammation, which is why it would make sense for it to cause inflammation in cells crucial for the brain and mental health.

Ryan and Brokamp compared the idea of PM2.5 worsening mental health to asthma, “wherein an individual with an underlying inflammatory disorder is prone to acute exacerbations after experiencing acute increases in air pollution exposure.”

The study was limited in that it relied on medical records for emergency room visits, so there could have been impacts on children that didn’t result in a hospital visit.

“These findings need to be confirmed in other populations, but they strongly support the need for further research on the potential influence of ambient air pollution on child and adolescent mental health,” the authors wrote.

via Is air pollution worsening kids’ mental health? – EHN

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Smoke-laced smog envelops Phuket

Posted on September 23, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

Phuket awakes today enveloped by an eerie sea of smoke-laced mist and smog – a combination of light winds, smoke blowing up the Malacca Strait from the Indonesian plantation fires and low seasonal cloud. The conditions have reduced visibility generally around the island to less than a kilometre.

Planes have still been landing at Phuket International Airport without disruption but airport officials say they are monitoring the situation and getting feedback from pilots.

Officially, the Thai Meteorological Department forecast is for a cloudy day with rain, and its hoped that the monsoonal winds may kick in during the day. But the prevailing winds are also the direction from where the problem is happening, from the south and south-west.

Cloudy with scattered thundershowers and isolated heavy rain in Ranong, Phangnga, Phuket, Krabi and Trang. Minimum temperature 23-25 °C. Maximum temperature 29-33 °C. Southwesterly winds 20-35 km/hr. Wave height about 2 meters and above 2 meters in thundershower areas.

Singapore ran its showcase annual street-circuit Grand Prix last night amid the regional smoke crisis, caused by intentionally lit fires on the Indonesian islands, mostly Sumatra and Kalimantan. Indonesia President Jokowi has sent officials, army and fire-fighters to the areas to battle the blazes, arrest the farmers and representatives from the companies responsible. Some 30,000 people are now deployed to solve the urgent, but seasonal, problem.

Meanwhile the air quality readings for Phuket this morning indicate the air pollution is three times the world upper-limit standard of 50 micrograms per cubic metre of air. Southern Thailand is also suffering the poor air quality with Narithawat also recoding readings over 150 this morning.

via Smoke-laced smog envelops Phuket | The Thaiger

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Unrelenting haze makes 40 spots in Malaysia unhealthy

Posted on September 23, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

Hazy conditions in the country worsened today as smoke billowing from Indonesian fires surpassed levels not seen since 2015.

According to the Department of Environment’s Air Pollutant Index (API) this morning, 40 areas across the country were firmly in the “unhealthy” band while Johan Setia in Selangor descended back into “very unhealthy” levels.

In the central region of the peninsula, the Greater Klang Valley continues to be enveloped in a thick haze that left many areas with air quality bordering on “very unhealthy” levels.

Putrajaya recorded an API reading of 175 at 8am today while Kuala Lumpur was at 154.

In Selangor, areas further away from Johan Setia did not have much respite as API readings were 186 in Kuala Selangor, 171 in Shah Alam, and 166 in Petaling Jaya.

Perak also continued to suffer from hazy conditions, with “unhealthy” readings across all areas of the state except Tanjong Malim with an API of 75. The worst in the Silver State was Seri Manjong (172).

Further south, Nilai in Negri Sembilan registered an API of 190 this morning, putting it on the cusp of becoming very unhealthy. However, the air pollution eased towards Melaka where the worst API registered was 138 in Bukit Rambai.

Most areas in Johor were marginally into the “unhealthy” except Segamat (154) and Larkin (125).

In the north of the peninsula, most areas were either “moderate” or just inside the “unhealthy” band.

Over in East Malaysia, air quality improved significantly overnight, leaving just Sri Aman in Sarawak with unhealthy (134) air.

According to reports today, Indonesia’s Riau is now experiencing worse air pollution than experienced in 2015 as fires continued to rage there and in surrounding provinces.

Poor visibility there has also forced airlines to cancel or divert flights to airports in the area.

Indonesia continues to reject neighbouring countries’ offers to help it put out the fires within its borders, ignoring the 2002 Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution that created a framework expressly to address what has become an annual crisis.

The republic’s media pleaded with Jakarta yesterday to accept aid from Malaysia and Singapore to fight the fires, stressing that Indonesia needed “all the help we can get. Now.”

via Unrelenting haze makes 40 spots in Malaysia unhealthy | Malaysia | Malay Mail

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Southern Thailand smog well above safe levels

Posted on September 20, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

Screen-Shot-2019-09-20-at-09.52.19

Hat Yai, the main city in Songkhla, has been among the worst hit by the smog engulfing parts of southern Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo.

The business district of Hat Yai has been hard hit with PM2.5 particles exceeding the safety standards of 50 (set by the World Health Organisation). But some rain yesterday afternoon provided a short respite. This morning it is up to 158 again.

Two other areas facing similarly poor air quality are Yala and Satun provinces, according to Tananchai Wansuk, the chief of the area’s environment office.

“The smog from the Indonesian island of Sumatra is expected to cloud southern Thailand for at least the next three days.”

Meanwhile, measures have been put in place to protect public health in southern Krabi province amid a seasonal recurrence of haze drifting from Indonesia, the chief of the provincial health office said yesterday.

Dr Aphichai Limanont said hospitals of all sizes had been instructed to communicate information about coping with the smog, with those at most risk, such as children, the elderly, and people with chronic respiratory problems are being warned to be especially vigilant.

Aphichai acknowledged that Krabi had witnessed dense smog every year recently, but said the authorities had been able to cope.

The southern Thai provinces struggle perennially with the smoke from forest fires burning on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island and Kalimantan and it reappeared this week in Yala and Songkhla. Malaysia and Singapore have been suffering for several weeks with government environmental officials pointing fingers and trading insults.

Meanwhile, Indonesia’s President Jokowi has acknowledged the problem while 30,000 Indonesian army, firefighters and emergency responders are in the fire zones battling the intentionally-lit plantation fires.

via Southern Thailand smog well above safe levels | The Thaiger

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Singapore cracks world’s top 10 most-polluted cities as haze continues

Posted on September 19, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

Indonesian fires choking this part of the region have shot Singapore into the top 10 rankings of the world’s most polluted cities, according to live data from global air quality monitoring firm AirVisual this morning.

Our haze situation remains firmly at “unhealthy” levels today, with the National Environment Agency’s (NEA) pollutant standard index (PSI) sitting at 120 as of 9am — good for #7 on the AirVisual ranking — while the air quality in Malaysia and Indonesia continues to worsen, especially in areas near Sumatra and Borneo, where most of the fires are taking place.

In Kalimantan on Borneo and Jambi on Sumatra, the haze is at hazardous levels, with staggering AQIs of 445 and 458, respectively, according to air quality monitoring site aqicn.org.

More than a thousand schools in Malaysia were reportedly forced to close due to the haze, which even led to the death of a 4-month-old baby in Indonesia.

Unsurprisingly, Indonesia and Malaysia’s capital cities, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur, join Singapore in the top 10 of the IQAir AirVisual live ranking of polluted cities.

As of about 10 am, Singapore was ranked number 7 with a US Air Quality Index (AQI) of 142, just below Kuala Lumpur at number 6, with a US AQI of 144. Jakarta is ranked fourth with an AQI of 163 while Kuching topped the list with an AQI of 273.

Check out the rest of the top 10 rankings below:

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Now, you might have noticed some disparity between the US AQI and the PSI readings Singaporeans get updated with each day. For the record, the PSI as of 9am today is at 120.

One reason behind this is that the US AQI is measured differently, as it follows an air quality index reporting system set out by the US Environmental Protection Agency, calculating four of US’ major air pollutants that are regulated under its laws. They are: ground-level ozone, particle pollution, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide.

Singapore’s PSI, however, calculates six pollutants: particulate matter (PM10), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), sulfur dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide.

“The only country that adopts the USEPA AQI is the US. It is therefore incorrect to compare the PSI with other air quality indices which are calculated using different methodologies,” NEA had said on its website.

There are also no international guidelines on how air quality indices should be computed and that each country adopts a different measuring system based on their “local needs and circumstances,” the website added.

So if you’re in doubt about the indices, you might want to refer to more than one index readings for a better gauge of the air quality around you.

via Singapore cracks world’s top 10 most-polluted cities as haze continues

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