Tag: Air Monitoring

Air Quality Policy in HK

by Maria Restrepoin More news

Beyond the constant air pollution news and our daily experience with pollution, how much do we know about air quality in our Asian cities? And do we know what the local governments are doing to improve air quality?

Today we will take a look at the situation in Hong Kong. Pollution in HK comes from local street-level pollution caused by vehicles and regional smog caused by motor vehicles, marine vessels, industry and power plants both in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta region.

What is the Government doing?

The Government has an Air Pollution Control Ordinance and a Clean Air Plan where the objective is to achieve ‘reasonable and practicable air quality to safeguard the health of the population’. Strategies include controlling emissions from motor vehicles, marine vessels, power plants and industry and coordination with the Guangdong Provincial Authorities to implement a joint plan. Strategies are based on the Air Quality Objectives (AQO) set in 2014 and are a combination of WHO’s ultimate Air Quality Guideline (AQG)  and interim targets. In the table below we can see a comparison between WHO AQG and HK AQO with regards to PM10 and PM2.5.

The Actions

What is the current situation like?

The Clean Air Network HK has recently released a report based on 2016 data where they found that HK AQO haven’t been met in the past 3 years and in fact is usually twice the WHO recommended level. Moreover, on a daily basis there is a variation of readings in which peak times air quality is 2.6 times worse than off-peak times, suggesting vehicles are having a higher role in damaging local air quality.

 “The growth of vehicles number has gone uncontrollable and offset some of the effort made by the government, especially to reduce NO2.” The CEO of Clean Air Network, Patrick Fung, said.  “The next term of government should look at this imminent issue as top of the agenda. Traffic has been a daily headache to all Hong Kong people, and is an impediment to the improvement of air quality, public health and other living qualities.”

According to the Hedley Environmental Index of HKU School of Public Health, the air pollution in 2016 caused 1,686 premature deaths, 21.6 billion direct economic loss and 2.65 million additional doctor visits.

Overall, we need to have more information on air quality and a broader coverage of monitoring stations in order to better understand the situation in the city and have targeted local policies!

Sources:
Clean Air Network – How bad is Hong Kong air now
HKSAR Environment Bureau – A Clean Air Plan
Environmental Protection Department – Air Quality Objectives Website
Environmental Protection Department – Compliance Status of Air Quality Objectives

Am I Exposed to Air Pollution?

by Maria Restrepoin Featured
But how is our exposure to air pollution measured?

The WHO model was developed together with the University of Bath, United Kingdom and is based on data from more than 3,000 locations with ground station monitors which represent about 40% of the world’s urban population. It also includes satellite measurements and air transport models to give an annual average exposure to particulate matter (PM2.5), which are the tiny particles that penetrate deep into the body and create the greatest harm.

Another source of air quality information that is commonly used across the world is the AirNow or AQICN Apps, Facebook and webpage. This information comes from the Environmental Protection Agencies of 600 major cities in 70 countries. The information from 9,000 stations is collected and reported on an hourly basis in real time. The readings are displayed in the EPA AQI standard index and only uses PM2.5 and PM10 readings.

Is this data accurate to assess my personal exposure?

Research has shown that population exposure from fixed-site monitors do not show a clear picture of daily exposure at the individual level. In fact when comparing personal exposure measurements and ambient monitoring, there are significant differences and some studies have shown that the major variance comes from accounting for air quality during commuting to and from work, school or play. A recent study by the Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT) suggests that data collected through mobile phone usage to determine ‘activity patterns’ (areas most transited by people) can be linked to the traditional static air quality monitoring to give a more precise measurement of exposure to air pollution.However, this will also depend on the number of air monitoring stations in the city where you live and how close they are to your area of commute or to the area where you work, how long you spend indoors and the quality of air indoors. All in all, the current system of air quality monitors provides useful information for policy matter and to have an indication of the general air quality, but it fails to provide any given individual with an accurate account of his own personal exposure to air pollution.

There is no doubt that the most useful measure of your personal exposure is a portable air quality monitor, that can give you personalised, real-time, accurate information of your own daily exposure accounting for the quality of the air indoors as well as the outdoor air you are exposed to in your daily routine.

Taking care of your health starts by owning the data of those environmental threats that can negatively affect your health.
This is why we at meo believe that we can make a difference in your life. 

In the meantime, get informed:

  • To know the annual PM2.5 levels in the city where you live visit: www.breathelife2030.org
  • To know hourly air quality values on US EPA AQI standard visit: www.aqicn.org or download the App
  • Look for local options to access data that better represents your personal exposure.

Sources:
MIT News – Measuring exposure to pollution
WHO – WHO releases country estimates on air pollution exposure and health impact
AQICN – World-wide Air Quality Monitoring Data Coverage

Meo’s Great News to Share!

by Maria Restrepoin More news

Today we would like to share some exciting news about meo’s progress! We have been hard at work on many fronts in the past months and October has seen the fruition to some of these efforts.

We are very excited to announce that meo’s air quality solution is the first of its kind being patented. The HK Intellectual Property Office has validated meo’s air quality solution which is now “Patented”. Simultaneously, our trademark for the name and logo of meo has also been accepted as of early October.

You probably remember our recent call for social media support in our run for the Hong Kong CityTech award. Well thanks to your support, we received the CityTech Award from Civic Exchange and the Internet Society. The meo solution was selected and polled well, getting the third most votes via social media of 20 initiatives detailed on the website.

And the best part is that we are advancing well in our seed-funding round and are now able to dive into the optimization of our current prototype. We are making sure the product that will hit the market in December 2016 will have high quality, precision, accuracy and functionality.

Safe Indoor Air, Safe Businesses!

Cities and Their Share in Air Quality Policies

by Maria Restrepoin More news

Urban population is growing in all continents as people are attracted by the convenience of cities. However, it’s in the cities that people are most exposed to air pollution on a daily basis: the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 80% of world citizens are breathing an air that exceeds WHO air safety threshlods. During COP21 in Paris, 1000 mayors from across the world made a firm commitment to reduce pollution in towns and cities. These mayors have committed to put ‘the health of citizens over that of industrial lobbies’.

C40 -the network of megacities committed to address climate change, has highlighted 5 key interventions to reduce pollution that are in the hands of city governments and are currently being implemented by many cities:

  1.  Restrictions on private motor vehicles
  2. Low-emission public transport
  3. Measurement and management to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Asian cities are also taking measures to various degrees:

Hong Kong, for example, faces two major air pollution sources: local street-level pollution and regional smog from power plants, marine vessels and industry both in the city and the Pearl River Delta. To tackle air pollution Hong Kong focuses on reducing emissions from vehicles via incentives to retrofit old diesel vehicles with particulate reduction devices, helping owners replace their old vehicles, controlling smoky vehicles, and subsidizing a trial of electric double-decker buses. HK government has also capped the locally supplied marine diesel to 0.05% sulphur [lower levels of sulphur content translate o lower levels of particulate matter being released into the air], all the government marine vessels use EuroV diesel, and all vessels are required to switch to 0.05% sulphur content while berthing. Finally, power plants, which have been restricted from opening new coal-fired plants since 1997 and instead are encouraged to use natural gas.

In Singapore the plan focuses mainly on urban planning and reduction of vehicle and industry emissions.

And Beijing, which started in the 1970’s to control coal-fired air pollution, and then in the 1990’s moved to control vehicles emissions through an integrated emission control system. This includes control of new vehicles, fuel quality improvement, promotion of new energy vehicles, driving restrictions, incentives to phase out older vehicles and shifting more public transport to rail mode. However, PM2.5 and O3 continue to grow especially due to regional characteristics and the influence of regional transport.

NGOs in Europe such as Clean Air London and in Asia such as Clean Air Network or Greenpeace call for more and bolder measures to reduce air pollution. Greenpeace advocates in China have called for a drastic reduction of coal-fired plants, Clean Air Network in Hong Kong advocates for more vehicle restrictions, low emission zones and stricter regulations for marine vessels at berth. It is clear that despite the introduction of air quality control policies, air pollution continues to be a problem, so there is more work to be done in this area.

A good starting point is giving citizens and governments better access to information on air pollution to push for stronger policies and to understand which policies have a greater impact on the air we all breathe!

Sources:

C40 – Mayors from around the world won’t breathe easily until urban air pollution is tackled

C40 – Five ways C40 cities are taking action to curb air pollution