The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday issued its first text message air pollution alert to residents in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮), when the area’s air quality index (AQI) reading exceeded 200.
A cold front carrying pollutants from China to Taiwan resulted in poor air quality in the central and southern coastal regions yesterday, the agency said.
The agency’s monitoring station in Mailiao gave a “purple” AQI reading of 211 — meaning “very unhealthy” — at 2pm yesterday, EPA data showed.
Photo provided by the Environmental Protection Administration
The hourly concentration of PM10 — particulate matter with a diameter of 10 micrometers or less — reached 623 micrograms per cubic meter at one point, the data showed.
The alert advised residents to avoid outdoor activities, EPA Department of Environmental Monitoring and Information Management Director-General Chang Shuenn-chin (張順欽) said.
Alerts are only issued when a monitoring station’s AQI reaches 200, and are only sent to residents within a 20km radius of that station, to prevent them from becoming a public nuisance, he said.
The agency recently launched a new air quality monitoring Web site, which has more infographics showing changing weather conditions, as well as scientific explanations of the chemical elements of pollution, to help people understand that “air pollution is a culmination of a combination of factors,” he said.
To reduce dust, officials have increased sprinkling water on roads near the Yunlin coast, the agency said, adding that air quality in the area would improve today as the wind speed is forecast to drop.
In related news, environmentalists in Kaohsiung yesterday urged Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) to improve the city’s air quality while he was distributing red envelops to people at Yu Huang Temple (玉皇宮).
“Clean air is the red envelop that citizens really need,” environmental group Southern Taiwan Anti-Air Pollution Alliance said.
The alliance called on Han not to extend the permits for two of the four coal-fired generators at the Sinda Power Plant (興達電廠) and to propose solutions to air pollution.
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