There Are Only 573 Air Quality Monitoring Stations In India: Vinay Pathak, 3M Personal Safety Division

What is an indicator of the deteriorating air quality in the coming quarter?

The Central Pollution Control Board along with State Pollution Control Boards have been operating National Air Monitoring Program (NAMP) covering 240 cities with more than 573 monitoring stations. Apart from this, continuous monitoring systems that provide data on near real-time basis have also been installed in a few cities. They provide information on air quality in public domain in simple linguistic terms that is easily comprehensible to a common person. Air Quality Index (AQI) is one such tool for effective dissemination of air quality information to people.

The AQI values and corresponding ambient concentrations (health breakpoints), as well as associated likely health impacts for PM2.5 & PM10, are as follows:

Apart from this, you may observe certain symptoms due to initial exposure to poor air quality such as itching in the eyes and nose, sneezing, congested nose, runny nose, watering, irritable airways, cough, allergies and asthma. On a long-term exposure, the health impact may be much more severe, as depicted in the chart.

 What are the threats which arise from pollutants and deteriorating air quality?

As winter sets in, air pollution by haze/smog (mainly due to suspended fine particulate matter - PM2.5), will become worse in the many cities across India. This may be observed by watching out for AQI indices published on a regular basis. The AQI represents the fine particulate pollutants measuring 2.5 microns (PM2.5), especially dangerous to health. These particles are so tiny that they can penetrate into the lung tissues and even enter the bloodstream. This can make life miserable for children; asthmatics and people who are allergic. PM2.5 is associated with a number of health impacts such as asthma, bronchitis, chronic respiratory symptoms including, shortness of breath and painful breathing, and premature deaths.

Respiratory allergies like asthma and rhinitis tend to worsen during winters in North India due to smog / haze present in the atmosphere. Symptoms include itching in the eyes and nose, sneezing, congested nose, runny nose, watering, irritable airways, cough and shortness of breath. These may irritate and trigger allergies in the respiratory tract and skin, especially in the vulnerable e.g. children, the elderly, the pregnant and those exiting chronic lung and heart disease. These pollutants when breathed in can reduce the quality of our respiration which in turn increases demands on our circulation and heart.

What can citizens do to protect themselves and stay healthy?

Following measures can be taken to avoid the city’s poisonous air:

CLEAN THE INDOOR AIR:

It is a good idea to invest in some mechanism for cleaning air at home or office, considering we spend a majority of our time indoors and indoor air may be upto 10 times worse than the air outside. There are products in the market today which can be used with your existing wall-mounted AC to clean the air of PM2.5 without the filter taking any extra space or running cost. Running it even one hour per day is an effective way to keep the air cleaner clean. Alternately, you may invest in an air purifier for your home and office.

 WEAR RESPIRATORS (NOT MASKS) WHEN OUTDOORS

Respirators are designed to help reduce the wearer’s respiratory exposure to airborne contaminants i.e. particles that are small enough to be inhaled - particles less than 100 microns (μm) in size. This includes airborne particles like PM2.5 / PM10. A respirator rated N95(NIOSH Approved) filters out more than 95% of particles (PM) larger than 0.3 microns — that’s much smaller even than PM2.5 microns. This is a good thing since most of air pollution’s bad health effects are caused by particles 2.5 microns and smaller.

Surgical masks, hankies and dupattas, on the other hand, do not have either adequate filtering or fitting attributes to provide respiratory protection for the wearer.

Please refer to the below-mentioned chart which explains the difference between Respirators and Masks.

KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MASKS AND RESPIRATORS

STAY AWAY FROM FIRE-CRACKERS
Bombs, flower pots and wheels produce a lot of smoke with chemicals like potassium, sulphur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide which can set off wheezing or coughing, especially in those prone to allergic infections.

AVOID OUTDOOR EXERCISES

Breathing heavily during that cardio workout will draw pollution deeper into the lungs, increasing the chances of respiratory ailments. Hence, monitor AQ in your locality or city and avoid outdoor exercise at least until levels drop below the prescribed limit. Even allergic cough and breathing problems in little children can be averted by spending the evening indoors.

KEEP MEDICINES HANDY & CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR (IF NECESSARY)

The best way to deal with polluted indoor air is to keep it clean. However, you must never ignore any sustained symptoms. Keep your allergy kit ready with the required medicines, inhalers and nebulizers in case you have a family member with respiratory illness. If you develop symptoms like a persistent cough, running nose and, headache, do consult a doctor. People with asthma can increase their medication and should immediately consult their doctor if their symptoms worsen.

What is the difference between breathing fresh air and breathing clean air?

• Clean air is actually a combination of a number of elements such as 21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen and 1% other natural elements.
• However the fresh air that we breathe outside / inside our homes may not be clean. The fresh air we breathe at home (without using any kind of Air purifiers) may be contaminated with the various air pollutants that are present around us (yes, even indoor air!). The air we breathe will depend on the area we stay in and the levels of pollution present in that location.

Is there a need for more air quality monitoring stations for the coming quarter?

• There is absolutely a growing need to have more Air Quality monitoring stations across the nation. Ambient air quality monitoring is required to determine the existing quality of air, evaluation of the effectiveness of control programme and to identify areas in need of restoration and their prioritization and most importantly – in order to allow people to prepare and protect themselves on a real-time basis.
• At present, there are only 573 air quality monitoring stations in India. While Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has moved on to real-time satellite-based monitoring of air pollutants, one can not underestimate the importance of physical monitoring stations to support the satellite-based data.
• Apart from this, citizens can invest in handheld PM2.5 indicators available in the market today. These are helpful in monitoring the air quality in homes/offices where one spends most of the time.

What are some of the potential solutions to improve air quality and combat/decrease pollutants? 

Some of the steps that I can think of to combat air pollution are:

• Encourage the use of public transport
• Phasing out of grossly polluting vehicles plying within the city area
• Strict checking of vehicular emissions for in-use vehicles
• Introduction of clean fuels like CNG/LPG
• Better traffic management
• Closing down of industries using coal/coke within 50-100 kms of radius of the city

At a personal level, individuals should invest in protective equipment like N95 respirators, indoor air cleaning mechanism like AC filters or purifiers, and carefully understand the sources of air pollution to see how they can reduce their personal contribution to poor air quality.

We should collectively work to increase public awareness on the ill-effects of air pollution and the ways to reduce the same through messages / Articles through newsletters, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, television, radios, Internet, workshops and exhibitions.