The Consumers’ Foundation said it has built and tested a handheld device to detect PM2.5 — particulate matter measuring less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter — to enable pollution detection at street level and promote public participation in pollution monitoring to supplement the government’s monitoring system.
Volunteers conducted PM2.5 testing at 67 outdoor and indoor locations in the six special municipalities on Nov. 9 and Nov. 10 with a mobile PM2.5 sensor made using freely available equipment, and the testing results were generally in line with data provided by the Environmental Protection Administration’s air quality monitoring stations, the foundation said yesterday.
However, discrepancies between the foundation’s tests and the EPA’s monitoring were also registered, which was due to local pollution sources beyond the reach of the EPA’s stations, such as the cooking fumes of food vendors, the burning of agricultural mass and bus emissions, the foundation’s chief testing officer Ling Yung-chien (凌永建) said.
The sensor was designed so that people could easily afford to buy and operate the device, allowing them to be a part of the pollution control mechanism and to expand the administration’s air pollution monitoring network, which consists of only 76 monitoring stations nationwide, making the detection of street-level pollution unachievable, Ling said.
The testing showed that privately developed devices and public initiated testing could supplement the government’s pollution control efforts, Consumers’ Foundation chairman Alan Lu (陸雲) said, adding that public participation in science and community-based monitoring could be pivotal in environmental policy.
Environmental Protection Administration Minister Wei Kuo-yan (魏國彥) said that the administration would establish a laboratory to test and compare the precision of privately developed pollutant sensors.
“The foundation’s device and volunteers’ participation, together with similar projects funded by the administration, would be a ground zero of public science and community-based monitoring in combating pollution,” Wei said.
However, Wei said that pollution tests by non-professionals with non-standard devices could not be used as scientific evidence in pollution detection and that reporting suspected pollution to the relevant authorities remains the only option for the public.
The foundation called on the public to exercise self-protection and avoid the sources of pollution.
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