DENR launches 2nd air monitoring station

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) launched on Thursday its second air quality monitoring station in Valenzuela City.

DENR Secretary RamonPaje said the station is part of the agency’s continuing efforts to improve air quality especially in Metro Manila, where vehicles contribute to about 80 percent of pollutants.

“As part of our clean air program, the data that this station will collect will be used as reference for crafting air quality management programs and policies especially by the local government unit,” he said.

Environmental Management Bureau director Juan Miguel Cuna, meanwhile, said the station is also capable of determining weather conditions that may affect the movement of air pollutants.

The equipment would provide real time air pollution data, as well as allow the use of the data in developing attainment and maintenance plans and for abatement measures, he said.

The first fully-automatic air quality monitoring station was launched on Nov. 15 at the De La Salle University in Taft Avenue. It will measure data in south Manila.

Another station will be put up along Commonwealth Avenue on Dec. 20, while the fourth will be installed at the Department of Public Works and Highways compound along EDSA.

The newly-installed equipment is capable of measuring pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and ozone, as well as measure meteorological data such as wind speed and direction in real time, with the data available online.

The DENR also has nine manual monitoring stations distributed throughout Metro Manila that measure total suspended particulates (TSP) levels.

The DENR, through the EMB, has reported that air quality in Metro Manila has improved as evidenced by the declining level of TSP, which significantly dropped from an average of 166 micrograms per normal cubic meter (µg/Ncm) at the end of the second quarter of 2010, to 116µg/Ncm as of the third quarter of this year.