Most of the nation’s air quality monitoring stations are using outdated equipment, and some stations have high rates of failure and inaccuracy, a Control Yuan report issued earlier this month said.
Most of the 77 stations are using equipment that has been in service more than 16 years as of September last year, although the legally stipulated lifespans is five years, the report issued on March 4 said.
These include the sulfur dioxide analyzers, nitrogen oxide analyzers and PM10 monitors at 71 stations, the carbon monoxide analyzers at 70 stations and the ozone analyzers at 69 stations, the report said.
The monitors for fine particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) at 71 stations have been in use for more than 14 years, it said.
The stations in Hsinchu, Hualien, Chiayi and Taichung’s Situn District (西屯) had the highest failure rates, with their out-of-operation hours representing 2.5 to 9.1 percent of their annual operating hours, it said.
The Situn station, as well as those in Kaohsiung’s Fusing District (復興), Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢) and Nantou County’s Jhushan Township (竹山) have the highest inaccuracy rates, ranging between 3 to 6.3 percent, the report said.
Stations established by local governments have similar problems, including one in New Taipei, five in Taichung, two in Tainan and three in Kaohsiung, it said.
Control Yuan member Peter Chang (張武修), who conducted the investigation, said that the stations are supposed to collect data 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but data collection goes unsupervised when the locations are not staffed overnight and on weekends.
Data completeness and accuracy is also threatened because some stations are on school campuses or inside government facilities with guarded entrances, so technicians might not be able to respond immediately to equipment failures or abnormalities, Chang said.
He also questioned the practicality of the government’s air quality index (AQI) standards.
Although the law stipulates that school classes below tertiary level should be suspended when the AQI exceeds 400, that threshold has never been passed, he said.
In Malaysia, schools can suspend class when the AQI in the region is more than 200, which is considered “extremely unhealthy” in that nation, he said.
In the US, schools and libraries are required to close if the ground-level ozone concentrations exceed 0.5 parts per million (ppm), while the threshold in Taiwan is 0.505 ppm, he said.
Taiwan “lags behind” other countries when it comes to air quality standards for class suspensions, which there is room and a need for improvement, he added.
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