Air pollution bulletin – October 2006 Right to Clean Air Campaign, Centre for Science and Environment A close look at the polluted air The recent initiative by the Central Pollution Control Board to generate real time air quality data in four online monitoring stations in Delhi – ITO, Siri Fort, Delhi College of Engineering and East Arjun Nagar, and to allow public access to the data, is an exciting opportunity to understand the current trend in pollution in the city. The Right To Clean Air Team closely watched the trend at the heavy traffic intersection of ITO and the residential area of Siri Fort in South Delhi in two phases during the month of September. The ups and downs in PM2.5, nitric oxide (NO), which is directly emitted by vehicles, NO2 (oxidised form of NO), and ozone, exposed some astonishing facts. ! The big surprise is the high and elevated levels of PM2.5 during the night at the ITO station. On some days the level is two times the level recorded during the day. PM2.5 begins to build up after mid night, peaks around 3.00 am and then recedes around 7.00 am in the morning. A revisit to the site during September 16-18 showed that PM2.5 rose, remained elevated during the night though the top peak shifted to mid morning hours. Otherwise for most part of the day the levels remained stable at around 30-40 microgramme per cubic meter. Its ratio with the PM10 could not be studied, as the real time data for PM10 is not available. The trend in nitric oxide (NO), which is emitted directly by the vehicles, was predictably linked with the traffic peak hours during the day. NO generally shows multiple peaks during 24 hours and co-relates well with traffic peaks. It also shows a dip when ozone levels are high. Even during the night the levels are not very different from the high levels noted during the day. It normally peaks before mid night and during the wee hours of the morning. In both ITO and Siri Fort the pollution levels, especially NOx levels, are high during the peak traffic hours. The next big surprise is the rising level of ozone at Siri Fort, a residential site in south Delhi. Ozone begins to build up around 7.00 am in the morning when the sun rises and peaks around noon and after. It then begins to decline and levels off after sunset. So far ozone was not considered a problem in Delhi. The levels in Siri Fort have now begun to exceed the WHO guidelines of 2005 on some days. Are we hurtling towards another pollution disaster? India has not set standards for either PM2.5 or ozone yet.
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What’s happening? Has the current strategy to keep away and reduce the numbers of transit trucks failed to make an impact? ! Though some steps have been taken to bypass the non-destined trucks and also close a large numbers of entry points into Delhi, the truck traffic continues to pollute Delhi’s air significantly. Following the Supreme Court order of December 6, 2001, entry of commercial transit traffic was banned unless these were destined for Delhi. The Supreme Court had also ruled that no corridor joining different highways should pass through Delhi. Subsequently, in 2004 the Cabinet Secretary of Central Government was asked to convene a meeting of all the concerned officers from Ministries of Finance, Urban Development, Road Transport or any other Ministry or Department and Chief Secretaries of Delhi, Haryana and U.P to expedite the construction of bypasses and the expressways. Completion of the bypasses and expressways is still awaited.
CENTER FOR SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT 41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi, India - 110062
Tel: +91-11 29955124;29956110 Fax: +91-11 29955879 E-mail: cse@ceindia.org
Air pollution bulletin – October 2006 Right to Clean Air Campaign, Centre for Science and Environment ! The fact remains that the volume of the Delhi bound truck traffic is also colossal. A huge numbers of truck are destined to enter Delhi, as this city is a major wholesale trade centre for North India. Nearly 78 per cent of vegetables and fruits, 49 per cent of fuel, 44 per cent of iron and steel and 47 per cent of food grains traded in Delhi are destined for other states. The five national highways also bring interstate goods vehicles into the territory. This requires strong regulatory measures and management of the truck entry, loading and unloading. If Delhi cannot get rid of the transit truck it is important that the heavy-duty truck technology improves significantly to address the pollution challenge. The current practice of keeping emissions standards relatively advanced in a few cities and lax in the rest of the country is blocking improvements in the heavy-duty truck technology. Even though Delhi has moved on to Euro III emissions standards, the trucks that move on the highways and do not have access to Euro III fuels, continue to stagnate at Euro I and Euro II levels. These are extremely polluting technologies. Improved and uniform emissions standards should be enforced on a nation-wide scale. Air pollution control initiatives in Delhi can be seriously jeopardised if pollution from transit trucks and the rapidly growing vehicle numbers in the city are not controlled.
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Time for smog alert and emergency pollution control measures ! Other countries use real time air quality data such as the one CPCB is generating today, to issue health alert to the public to enable them to take precaution and also enforce emergency pollution control measures to bring down the daily peak levels. For instance, in Mexico city when either ozone or PM10 reach three times the standards industrial emissions are cut by at least 50 - 75 per cent, schools are closed to reduce number of vehicles taking children to school, or school opening times are delayed until the temperature inversion has lifted during late morning hours. Vehicle usage is cut by 40 per cent, by taking off the polluting vehicles and allowing only those vehicles that are certified for low emissions. Delhi should also consider adopting a package of emergency pollution control measures to reduce the daily peak levels. Control measures in Delhi should be designed to reduce all these pollutants. If the pollution levels have already reached such proportion at the onset of winter, it is only going to get worse during the winter. The effect of inversion will be so much more lethal if emergency measures are not in place.
Set standards for PM2.5 and ozone ! We need urgent steps to set standards for PM2.5 and ozone. High levels of PM2.5 and the rising trend in NOx and ozone are a serious cause of worry.
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CENTER FOR SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT 41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi, India - 110062
Tel: +91-11 29955124;29956110 Fax: +91-11 29955879 E-mail: cse@ceindia.org
Air pollution bulletin – October 2006 Right to Clean Air Campaign, Centre for Science and Environment Graph 1: ITO Traffic Intersection –10 to 12 September 2006 Daily trend of PM2.5, nitrogen dioxide and nitric oxide, and ozone PM2.5 is building up at night. NOx levels also remains elevated during the night.
Source: Compiled by CSE based on CPCB data Graph 2: Siri Fort – 10 to 12 September 2006 Daily trend of nitrogen dioxide and nitric oxide, and ozone (PM2.5 data not available) High ozone and NOx levels at Siri Fort in South Delhi
Source: Compiled by CSE based on CPCB data
CENTER FOR SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT 41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi, India - 110062
Tel: +91-11 29955124;29956110 Fax: +91-11 29955879 E-mail: cse@ceindia.org
Air pollution bulletin – October 2006 Right to Clean Air Campaign, Centre for Science and Environment Graph 3: ITO Traffic Intersection –16 to 18 September 2006 Daily trend of PM2.5, and ozone (Data for nitrogen dioxide and nitric oxide not available) -- PM2.5 records very high peak at ITO
Source: Compiled by CSE based on CPCB data
Graph 4: Siri Fort – 16 to 18 September 2006 Daily trend of nitrogen dioxide and nitric oxide, and ozone (PM2.5 data not available) Ozone level in Siri Fort has begun to exceed WHO guidelines of 2005. Even NOx levels are high.
Source: Compiled by CSE based on CPCB data
CENTER FOR SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT 41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi, India - 110062
Tel: +91-11 29955124;29956110 Fax: +91-11 29955879 E-mail: cse@ceindia.org