The Ministry of Environment on Friday pledged to review its air quality monitoring network within a month, after medical professionals urged improvements in tracking nitrogen dioxide levels, especially in high-traffic urban areas.
Department of Monitoring and Information head Chang Shun-chin (張順欽) said that the ministry would reassess the number and placement of monitoring stations across the country.
The ministry’s commitment came after several medical associations held a joint news conference calling for an upgrade in the nationwide monitoring of nitrogen dioxide and PM0.1.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The experts cited international studies linking nitrogen dioxide exposure to at least 10 major cancers, including lung, liver, breast and uterine cancers.
Mackay Memorial Hospital obstetrician and gynecologist Huang Jian-pei (黃建霈) said that uterine cancer has now overtaken cervical cancer in Taiwan, and that factors such as declining birthrates, obesity and environmental exposure — especially to nitrogen dioxide — might be playing a role.
He referenced a study last year that tracked 33,417 people who had breast cancer for more than a decade, and found that each 5 parts per billion (ppb) increase in nitrogen dioxide exposure raised the risk of uterine cancer by 23 percent.
The risk rose by as much as 53 percent for urban residents.
Obstetrician and gynecologist and Taiwan Association for Minimally Invasive Gynecology president Chen Kuo-hu (陳國瑚) said that nitrogen dioxide exposure was also associated with a 21 percent increase in ovarian cancer risk, rising to 44 percent among city dwellers.
Ovarian cancer ranked among Taiwan’s top 10 cancer-related causes of death last year.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) echoed these concerns, criticizing the ministry for maintaining only six traffic-related monitoring stations since the 1990s.
Liu called on the ministry to submit a concrete plan for expanding the network within one month.
Chang said that source control, such as reducing vehicle emissions and accelerating the shift to electric transportation, is more fundamental to addressing air pollution.
Nitrogen dioxide levels have already shown significant improvement, he said.
Between 2015 and last year, average nitrogen dioxide concentrations dropped from 14.21 to 9.57ppb at 78 general monitoring stations, and from 25.67 to 18.8ppb at traffic-specific stations.
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