Cross-regional air pollution rather than local pollution has a greater impact on the air quality in an area, data on annual average concentrations of particulate matter measuring 2.5 micrometers or smaller (PM2.5) from the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) showed.
The EPA used the Taiwan Emission Data System, supplemented by the emission databases of cities and counties, as well as data on atmospheric factors and overseas emissions, to identify the impact of annual average concentrations of PM2.5 in cities and counties in 2016.
For example, in Chiayi, emissions from within the city accounted for only 6 percent of the total, whereas emissions from other cities and counties accounted for 61 percent and pollution from abroad accounted for 33 percent.
In Kaohsiung, the city’s emissions made up 33 percent of the total, compared with 45 percent from other cities and counties, and 24 percent from overseas.
In Taichung, the city’s emissions accounted for 37 percent of the source of its PM2.5 impact, compared with 39 percent from other cities and counties, and 24 percent from overseas.
These figures showed that local PM2.5 emissions had a lower effect on local air quality, as most of the air pollution is coming from other cities and counties.
As air pollution moves in the direction of the wind, cities and counties have an effect on each other, Department of Air Quality Protection and Noise Control Director-General Tsai Meng-yu (蔡孟裕) said on Sunday.
Often when the air quality is poor, the wind is blowing in a northerly direction and, as a result, it would have a greater impact on cities and counties in the north than those in the south, he said.
As for preventing air pollution, Tsai said that since cross-regional pollution accounts for a considerable proportion of the air quality in each city and county, a “good neighbor clause” was included in Article 7 of the Air Pollution Control Act (空氣污染防制法).
The article states that plans proposed by cities and counties to prevent and control air pollution are no longer independent, and that local governments must discuss regional measures to tackle air pollution with neighboring cities and counties and implement those measures together across jurisdictions, he said.
For example, when air quality is poor in Pingtung County’s Chaojhou Township (潮州), Kaohsiung’s Linhai Industrial Park and Linyuan Industrial Park, or even Tainan, would be required to take measures to reduce air pollution, he said.
The EPA earlier this month also amended its regulations on the emergency prevention of a serious deterioration in air quality, lowering the threshold for contingency measures to be taken from an air quality index of greater than 200 to 150.
To improve air quality, it added co-generation coal-fired units, as well as the steel and petrochemical industries, among the sources of pollution that would have to reduce their load and emissions, and authorized local governments to formulate contingency measures for mobile pollution sources based on local conditions.
Carlo Wang (王聖翔), an atmospheric sciences professor at National Central University, said that the popular belief before was that air pollution from abroad accounted for about half of the total, but now it seemed like nearby cities and counties with high air pollution concentrations might have an even greater impact.
Places with more factories and a larger population would have a larger effect on neighboring cities and counties, he added.
Air quality is rarely improved only for a specific city or county, National Chung Hsing University environmental engineering professor Tsuang Ben-jei (莊秉潔) said.
Rather, it is when policies are promoted and become effective that air quality is improved across the nation, he said.
For example, the improvement of Taichung’s air quality in recent years is not entirely attributable to Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕), he said.
Rather, it is the encouragement to switch to gas boilers that has caused overall air quality in the central region to improve, Tsuang added.
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