Nikita Yadav informs us that there are three big differences in the way in which India’s Pollution Control Board estimates air pollution and the way private sector providers perform the same calculations.
The first difference is well known – officially in India the air quality index can never deteriorate beyond 500 regardless of what is happening in the real world. Why was this arbitrary limit imposed? Ms Yadav writes:
“”It was assumed that the health impact would be the same no matter how much higher it goes because we had already hit the worst,” says Gufran Beig, founder director of SAFAR.
He admitcs that the 500 cap was originally set to avoid creating panic as crossing that mark signalled an alarming situation requiring immediate mitigation.
But this approach effectively flattens the data – anything above 500 is treated the same on official monitors, even if the real concentration is far higher.
“International organisations and portals don’t impose such a cap,” says Mr Beig. “That’s why we see numbers going much higher on global platforms.””
The second difference is the way in which hazardous air is defined. “For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines classify PM2.5 levels – particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers – above 15 micrograms per cubic metre in a 24-hour period as hazardous, while in India, the threshold is 60 micrograms.
Experts say that globally, there’s no universal AQI formula. US, China and the European Union each apply their own pollutant thresholds.
“WHO provides guidelines and every country has built its index based on its own adaptability, weather and local environment,” says Mr Beig. Comparing India’s AQI to WHO or US standards can thus be misleading.” [We think Mr Beig is being polite.]
The third difference is in the machines used to take air quality readings. “The Indian pollution control board uses Beta Attenuation Monitors (BAMs), which physically measure the mass of particles in the air and are calibrated to strict, standardised metrics for every reading.
In contrast, portals like IQAir rely on sensor-based monitors, says Abhijeet Pathak, a scientist who formerly worked for India’s pollution control board.
Sensor-based monitors use laser scattering and electrochemical methods to estimate the number of particles suspended in the air…. sensor-based air quality monitoring has not yet been approved by the Indian government.”
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