Environmental Ministry seeks better pollution management

This news was published in Business Standard on June 26 2018.

• The Union Environment Ministry held meeting with expert institution including ISRO to discuss satellite based measurement for improving Air Quality Information and Management ahead of the winters.
• During meeting experts discussed use of satellite based Aerosol Optical Depth data for estimating ground based PM 2.5 or particle with diameter less than 2.5 macrons.
• The monitoring aims at early warning system and dissemination protocol to inform public and enforcing agencies about episodic high polution events in advance.
• In November 2016-2017 the Air pollution levels  Delhi has crossed the level,compelling government to impose several restrictions on industrial and construction activities ,close down the schools and warn people to avoid outdoor activities including morning walk.
• They discussed assessment of air pollution mitigation technologies and implementing solutions found feasible on a pilot basis before the onset of winter.
• The idea explored of setting up system for certification of air quality emission monitoring instruments as calibration and certification could be done domestically.
• National Physical Laboratories will be the certification agency for air quality measurement instrument.Certification of PM 2.5 and PM 10 volume sampler will commence from' September 2018'.