Daily Dose of Air Pollution: June 2015

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Air Pollution News & Alerts - June 30th, 2015

Last on May 31st, 2015

Monday, June 29, 2015

Shame - Delhi Govt. Sitting on INR385 crore (~64 million USD) for War on Air Pollution Since 2007, with 87% Unused

The Delhi government, in the last seven years, collected Rs 385 crore to fund its war on air pollution, but around 87% of this money has remained unspent, a planning department report has said. Read more @ India Today

Successive Delhi governments have not been serious about improving the notoriously bad quality of air that people breathe in the national capital. As pollution gradually peaked to alarming levels, governments sat on special 'air quality' funds, official documents accessed by Mail Today reveal.

The Delhi government, in the last seven years, collected Rs 385 crore to fund its war on air pollution, but around 87% of this money has remained unspent, a planning department report has said. These seven years include mostly Congress rule, besides a year of President's rule, and two brief stints of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

This, when air pollution has in the last 14 years doubled in the capital, the report says. The quantum of particulate matter 10 (particles smaller than 10 microns in diameter that lodge deep in lungs and blood cells) has gone up from 150 microgram per cubic meter in 2001 to 318 in 2014.

AAP, meanwhile, defended itself. "The blame for non-utilisation of the fund collected to fight air pollution lies with the previous Congress government. We would see how best we can use this resource. We have commissioned a study to IIT-Kanpur to draw-up a plan to improve Delhi's air quality which has found the world's worst by a WHO study," said a senior government official.

Friday, June 26, 2015

Delhi's Foul Air (The Guardian)

'My children are suffering but what can I do?' A family living in the middle of an eight-lane motorway, an autorickshaw driver struggling to breathe, a young woman who can’t wait to leave ... the foul air of India’s capital affects all sections of society

Read more @ The Guardian - Commentary by Beth Gardiner

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Infographic on Ground Level Ozone Pollution

The story of air pollution does not end with PM2.5 - Ozone is created when oxides and nitrogen compounds come into contact with sunlight and is the new source of health impacts in urban areas. Many of the same groups that are sensitive to other kinds of air pollution will have trouble with higher levels of ozone, namely people who already have respiratory problems, babies, senior citizens, and people who work outdoors. Unlike PM 2.5 pollution, masks and air purifiers don't help the situation. Instead, the best measure is avoid strenuous physical activity during strong summer sunlight. More @ theBeijinger

http://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0//attachment/2015/2015-06-10/babfdbfe-81c5-4fe2-be88-97afbae190df.jpg

Monday, June 22, 2015

Smog Posters from China

More @ China Dialogue. An exhibition of smog-inspired posters is touring the polluted cities of northern and eastern China this month to draw attention to the impending environmental disaster. Created by a group of Chinese designers, the 300 posters depict the terrifying face of smog to show how pollution changes our lives - and even our genes: One image shows a baby with a birthmark in the shape of a mask over his face. The posters have resonated with people in China and elsewhere. A Mr Wang, who has taken his family to live abroad, said on WeChat that “although we’re not in China, our compatriots back home suffering, and that makes every Chinese person sad.”

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Delhi’s Clean Air Challenge - Slow Murder (CSE Bulletin)

Eitorial by Sunita Narain

It is good that deadly air pollution in Delhi has become national headline. But it is bad that we are failing to deal with it and find answers that are commensurate with the scale of the problem. It is time to understand what we have done and the actions we need to take urgently and decisively. Otherwise, next winter—barely five months away—will be even more severe and hazardous. While foreigners can choose not to live in polluted Delhi, most of us do not have that option. Let’s also be clear that home air purifiers and filters are not the solution even if the rich in the city believe that they can shut their houses and clean their own private air.

Some 16 years ago, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) issued an advertisement: “Roll down the window of your bullet-proof car, Mr Prime Minister. The security threat is not the gun, it is the air of Delhi.” This was the time when the air of Delhi was full of black smoke, fuel and emission standards were virtually non-existent and motorisation was just beginning to take off. The agenda for action—also listed by CSE in the public notice—was to advance the roadmap for fuel-emission standards; restrict diesel vehicles and make the transition to a much cleaner fuel, compressed natural gas (CNG).

Not anymore. Since 2007 pollution has risen to dangerously toxic levels. This winter, the level of PM 2.5—tiny particles emitted from vehicles that can go deep into the lungs and enter the blood stream—remained three-four times higher than the safety standard. In fact, in November, December and January, air was classified as “severely polluted” for over 65 per cent of the days. According to the government’s own air quality index, this meant pollution was so bad that it could cause “respiratory effects even on healthy people”. It is unsafe to breathe. This is what we must realise.

So, what has happened to make Delhi residents, once again, wheeze, choke and die because of dirty air? In the past decade, since the introduction of CNG, some things have changed. First, there has been an explosion of personal vehicles—near 100 per cent increase in registration in Delhi alone. So, even as each car has become cleaner because of tighter emission standards and better quality of fuel, the number has increased exponentially. The net result on pollution is the same.

Second, while in 2000 diesel cars were only 4 per cent of the total sales, this increased to 50 per cent by mid-2000. Each diesel car is legally allowed to emit four to seven times more than the petrol variant. Pollution is inevitable. Third, the bypass road, ordered by the Supreme Court in 2004, was not built. So, some 50,000 trucks using dirty fuel and even dirtier technology transit the city.

One new source of pollution has made an entry. Post mid-2000, Punjab and Haryana directed farmers to delay paddy transplantation to reduce groundwater usage in peak summer. Now farmers have no time to prepare the field between harvesting paddy and growing wheat, so they burn the straw. In October and November, just as winter inversion is settling in, smoke from this fire makes its way to the already polluted airshed of Delhi.

The country immediately needs an aggressive roadmap for clean fuel and vehicle technology. This is not acceptable to powerful vehicle manufacturers. Even as oil companies have started the supply of cleaner fuel across north India since April 1, 2015, car companies have succeeded in getting an extension for supply of clean vehicles from the surface transport ministry. Now, the same car companies are busy arguing that they should continue to have the licence to pollute. They want 8-10 years to move to the cleaner vehicle technology Europe uses today. These companies need to understand that we have all run out of time and air to breathe.

The other steps are equally urgent, from monitoring air quality to smog alerts, so that we know when it is advisable to take precautions because of bad air. But most critical is the need to massively augment our public transportation systems, from bus and metro to footpaths and cycle tracks, so that we can take a bus and then cross the road or just walk. We also need car restraints. Parking rates and fines for illegal parking need to be increased and then enforced. Today we have a handful of cranes and a sprinkling of traffic police to stop illegal parking. This cannot go on.

In mid-1990s, we published a report on air pollution and called it Slow Murder. That’s what it is—deliberate and deadly. Nothing less.

Wednesday, June 03, 2015

Infographic - Delhi has World's Dirtiest Air?

by Times of India

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Is-Delhi-air-indeed-the-dirtiest-in-the-world/articleshow/47529506.cms