Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) and environmental protection activists yesterday said the particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) index implemented this month by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has created what they said are double standards when monitoring air quality and may give people misleading information about health risks brought by air pollutants.
With the Pollutants Standard Index (PSI) still in use, people are confused by the two indices when it comes to determining health hazards, they said.
The WHO determined that air pollution and PM2.5 are Group 1 carcinogens, alongside asbestos and tobacco. Exposure has been linked to lung cancer and asthma.
At a press conference, Lin showed a diagram with readings from survey stations in four districts and townships — New Taipei City’s Wanli (萬里), Yunlin County’s Taisi (台西) and Mailiao (麥寮) and Taitung County’s Guanshan (關山) — showing that the PSI and PM2.5 index contain conflicting information.
According to the diagram, at 3am on Monday in Mailiao the PM2.5 index was 3, meaning it was safe for people to go outdoors.
However, the PSI reached 107, which according to the EPA’s Web site is “unhealthful,” with conditions that could cause discomfort to people’s eyes and respiratory system.
Similarly, readings in Guanshan at the same time showed that the PSI was 114 while the PM2.5 index was as low as 2.
Lin said that the Legislative Yuan’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee on Jan. 13 issued a resolution that said the EPA should by July introduce a new air quality monitoring system that tallies PM2.5 concentrations, to allow more accurate measurements.
However, it was not until Oct. 1 that the agency announced the PM2.5 index — a stand-alone index determined without considering concentration levels of other pollutants — and by doing so, it has disrespected the legislature, he said.
Taiwan Healthy Air Action Alliance founder Yeh Guang-peng (葉光芃) said that the PSI is calculated by first measuring air quality every four hours, before adding it to another number produced by using the same measurement divided by 12 hours and, therefore, cannot reflect the actual air quality at a given time.
He urged the EPA to abolish the PSI system, which he said many countries stopped using long ago, and use the Daily Air Quality Index system adopted by the UK instead, as the latter takes measurements every hour and incorporates PM2.5 concentration levels while determining indices.
EPA Department of Air Quality Protection and Noise Control Director-General Chen Hsien-heng (陳咸亨) said the agency would collaborate with the Ministry of Health and Welfare to research health risks posed by PM2.5 before introducing what the agency tentatively terms the Air Quality Health Index.
Due to a shortage of information, he said that it would take an estimated three years before the planned air quality index is introduced.
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