The Ministry of Education’s “air pollution day off” for schools will not work, environmental groups said yesterday.
On Monday last week, the ministry said that schools can declare an “air pollution day” and cancel classes when there is a pollution concentration level of 350.4 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m3) for particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter (PM2.5).
The ministry’s revised standard was prompted by lawmakers’ concern over air pollution from China.
According to the new national standard, local governments can order elementary and secondary schools to declare an air pollution holiday, when the Environmental Protection Administration forecasts that the pollutant standards index (PSI) will exceed 400, with PM10 and PM2.5 concentration levels above 500μg/m3 and 350.4μg/m3 respectively.
Yeh Guang-peng (葉光芃), Taiwan Healthy Air Action Alliance founder and a gynecologist at Changhua Christian Hospital, criticized the new standard as “absurd.”
The PM2.5 daily average standard is set at 35μg/m3 in Taiwan and 25μg/m3 by the WHO, Yeh said.
This means an air pollution holiday when air quality exceeds 350.4μg/m3 may be rarer than typhoon holidays, he said.
Taiwan’s air pollution is already very serious and school students are included in a group that is more vulnerable to air pollution exposure because of their ages and more frequent outdoor sports activities, he said, adding that the standard should be set lower.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇), who had motioned for revising the standard earlier this year, said that the government must do better.
Now the standard includes PM10 and PM2.5 concentration levels, which is an improvement on before when only the general PSI standard was included, she said.
However, the risk of China’s air pollution on Taiwan is a real concern.
“It is no good to the nation if young people become unhealthy,” she said.
Taiwan Water Conservation Alliance spokesperson Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said if PM2.5 concentration levels exceed 35μg/m3 for eight hours, students’ health, including their cardiovascular and respiratory systems, may be harmed.
She urged for real-time air quality monitoring statistics to be displayed at playgrounds or other public spaces on school campuses.
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