Rain with snow over the hills in upper/central Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Potohar region, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir has helped reduce fog/smog and air pollution. Mainly cold/cloudy weather is expected in most parts of the country.
Air pollution of Islamabad has also lessened thanks to the downpour over the weekend. The air pollution of the capital reached record highest, as publicized by the 24 hours ambient air quality report of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA)’s on Wednesday.
In accordance with the report, a higher ratio of environmental toxins is producing bad air and tainted atmosphere leading to smog.
The National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) by EPA fixed an edge of 120 microgrammes per cubic meter for sulphur dioxide (SO2), 35 microgrammes per cubic meter for particulate material of 2.5 microns (PM2.5), and 80 microgrammes per cubic meter to confirm clean atmosphere.
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The report further states that during the 24 hours average of PM2.5 was noted 198.96 microgrammes per cubic meter which were told to be the highest ever during the eight-hour average at 280.3 microgrammes per cubic meter from 1600 to 2400 hours.
While the remaining constraints of the daily quality reports are NO2 and SO2 which are usually emitted from industrial discharge. The average of NO2 during 24 hours was 19.88 microgrammes per cubic meter while 43.44 microgrammes per cubic meter of SO2 and both the emissions were documented within the acceptable limits
Moreover, an EPA authorized person informed that the air quality was dangerous because of higher vehicular emanations and protracted dry weather caused in enormous accretion of suspended particles of air pollutants in the atmosphere. The officer added that the air quality was harmful to every age group and the general public was directed to wear face-covering outdoors and evade pointless travel in the capital owing to the high pollution levels.
The EPA officer further conveyed that the large number of vehicles entering the capital on daily basis is one of the major reasons for the capital’s air pollution.
Besides, the industrial sector principally steel manufacturing divisions disgorging dark smoke were the troublemakers and had used carbon gripping scrubbers that facilitated control dark carbon emission into the atmosphere, the officer added.
