Sweeping the dust in the air is an idiomatic way of describing the efforts of cleaning air pollution in the atmosphere, and attempts to figuratively sweep the dirt under the rug, can no longer be kept hidden as the mound of dirt is now showing.
Too good to be true? On daily TV news, you will notice the air pollution index to be always either “good” and “fair” and therefore tolerable almost anywhere in Metro Manila, which gives us this sense of uncanny comfort and complacency, owing to the contrasting facts that we still visibly see the widespread vehicle emissions on the streets.
This begs the question on whether we are measuring our ambient air pollution properly or not, which in all likelihood we are not measuring to expectations, as contrary facts and manifestations of the problem are indeed already alarming.
For one, World Bank’s 2002 Environmental Monitor on air pollution, said that health costs due to air pollution in Metro Manila alone amount to about $393 Million a year. Records also show that 9,000 die directly every year, mostly from billowing smoke from house fires. Moreover, Department of Health (DOH) records show that over 85,000 Filipinos die every year from all sorts of respiratory diseases like lung cancer, asthma, pneumonia, emphysema, bronchitis, pulmonary diseases, etc, all of which are aggravated by air pollution. Men double women in terms of mortality as men indeed smoke more, but the correlation with vehicle emissions is high, considering jeepney drivers ranked No. 1, followed closely by street children.
Particular over Matter ? At a recent forum organized by the Partnership for Clean Air (PCA) in partnership with EU-Switch Philippines, Preciosa Corazon “Sony” Pabroa, PhD of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) made a presentation explaining the components of Particulate Matter” (PM) in the atmosphere is what matters most because this is what exacerbates respiratory diseases. World Health Organization (WHO) itself has declared the effects of air pollution on lung cancer and cardio-vascular diseases.
The study though was limited to PM data collected from only three sites and from 24-hour average daily samplings instead of the more accurate real time every minute reading of 1,440 samples a day. Nonetheless, it captured not only Particular Matter with a diameter size of 10 micrograms (PM10) and PM2.5, but also the No. 1 culprit, Black carbon, as small as one micron that can penetrate the Alveoli, or the farthest smallest reach of the lungs. High presence of sulfur from diesel burning was also detected.
Traces of metals and other elements were also captured, with lead surprisingly high in all sites, particularly Valenzuela, even if lead has already been removed from gasoline. Engr. Dave Garcia, a consultant of the National Jeepney Federation for Environmental Sustainable Transport (NJFEST), said this is traced possibly to backyard lead battery recyclers, and to plastic-making in Valenzuela as plastic makes use of lead. Also found was Zinc, which comes from engine oil burning, partly because of 2T oil burning that is mixed with gasoline and during engine blow-by conditions when oil leaks are burned along with fuel.
Pollution is worse, not good or fair. Another study done by the Researchers for Clean Air (ResCueAir), an organization of researchers from the academe led by Dr. Edgar Vallar of La Salle and Dr. Mylene Cayetano of UP Diliman, is worth discussing. Imagine, this group spent their own money putting out P30,000 or P20,000 or P50,000 each, all for the love for research to fund the Manila Aerosol Characterization Experiment (MACE). And yet there are huge untapped government funds like DENR’s over P200 Million Air Quality Management Fund (AQMF) and DOTr’s P8.5 Billion Special Vehicle Pollution Control Fund.
MACE brought in some equipment and some five (5) German experts from the Tropos Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research to conduct the study from April to May 2015. ResCueAir with the help of Partnership for Clean Air (PCA) sought tariff exemptions as the equipment used won’t be imported, but simply borrowed and brought back to Germany after use. Nonetheless, they were still slapped unfairly a P200,000 surety bond, which meant the young professors from the academe had to cough up more personal funds.
Anyway, the German team leader Alfred Wiedensohler report shows that Black Carbon concentrations taken from samples along Taft Avenue and Katipunan were as high as 94 micrograms, or 2,250 percent higher than the four (4) microgramss along roadsides in Leipzig, Germany, or even 9,300 percent higher than the one microgram recorded in off-road or background urban areas in Leipzig.
Measure or sure miss? The stark differences in readings are traced to the fact DENR has been purchasing the same equipment, already declared obsolete and junked abroad with their high 25 percent standard deviation errors, against the lower 2.5 percent errors in more modern technologies.
In 2003, DENR bought 10 of these old air monitoring units worth $10 Million; another four units in 2006; four more in 2010; 10 more units in early part of 2013, and five more that same year to certify all past equipment were working; and again in 2013 17 more units were purchased, but only 14 were finally turned over. Not contented, again in 2013, 10 more units were bought for installation to other regions, which did not report allegedly any data nor were there locations known publicly. By 2015, seven more units were again purchased, while 37 units more worth P370 Million were to be bidded out. For 2016, DENR was programmed to procure more units totaling P314 Million. In all these transactions for over a decade, Electrobyte was the sole supplier, and worst, most of these equipment are not even functioning, says Manny Galvez of the Clean Air Coalition.
A lot of work, but no funds to allot? It is ironic while there is a lot of work that needs to be done, and so much allocated for obsolete air monitoring stations, there are no funds allotted for air pollution research, and programs like capacity building, training and educational seminars for local government units (LGUs) and stakeholders like transport groups.
It is no wonder, Section 15 of the Clean Act on Pollution Research remains unimplemented after 17 years of the law. Section 11 mandates that government must make available all the information on air pollution control techniques, preventive maintenance and technological options, etc. so motorists can make more intelligent choices. Section 46 requires that apart from penalties, smoke belching violators must undergo seminars on emissions reduction. After all, no amount of penalties or frequency of road apprehensions will reduce emissions. But government cannot do this in the absence of prior research.
Perhaps, it will be ideal if government funds all forms of air pollution research from alternative technologies on ambient air, fuel quality, alternative fuels, etc., all in the aim of imbibing the unwritten mission: “Emission Impossible.”
(Email: mikealunan@yahoo.com)