Street-level pollution worse than expected -- and deteriorating – in Asian cities, say scientists
BANGKOK, November 10, 2009: The health of roadside dwellers and commuters is likely more at risk from air pollutants than was previously believed, according to a group of international scientists at the Better Air Quality (BAQ) 2008 workshop being held in Bangkok this week.
The group, which comprised Asian, American and Australian scientists, called for more research into the effect of air pollution on people living, working or commuting at street level in Asia’s growing cities.
“Surveys have shown that street-level pollution of particulate matter, the most damaging urban pollutant, can be 2-4 times higher than that routinely measured on top of buildings,” said Dr Sumeet Saksena of the East-West Center, Honolulu, United States.
Like cities elsewhere, Asian cities have to rely for data on air pollution monitoring sites that are generally too few and scattered. According to the researchers, these stations do not adequately measure what people are exposed to at street level, where exhaust and dust from vehicles most pollute the air they breathe.
Particulate matter, carbon monoxide, benzene, ozone and other pollutants are found in high concentrations in the air that people breathe in cities like Bangkok, Hanoi, Beijing, and Jakarta. A major source of these pollutants is road traffic, which is projected to increase rapidly with rising urbanization in developing Asian countries.
This was the conclusion of researchers at the workshop on “Near-Roadway and on-road exposures to air pollution: Risk Communication and Decision Making,” organized by the East-West Center and the Asian Institute of Technology and funded by US National Science Foundation, the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities Center, and SwissContact. Participants at the workshop, part of Better Air Quality (BAQ) 2008, included a team of physical and social scientists, government representatives, and private sector officials.
“We need to know more about the air that people are breathing at street level,” said Dr. Nguyen Thi Kim Oanh, environmental researcher at the Asian Institute of Technology.
The researchers pointed to the lack of data on pollution people are exposed to at street level. They wanted more research targeted at individuals who are most vulnerable to the effects of air pollution. These include daily commuters as well as those whose livelihoods compel them to spend significant time on roads, such as bus drivers, policemen and street vendors.
“We have to get down to the roadway level to understand the effects of pollution on peoples’ health. And we need to push the development of technology to measure more accurately the harmful chemicals people are breathing,” said Dr. Paul Roberts, a researcher at Sonoma Technology, Inc. in California.
The concern was echoed by Dr. Vitaya Vajanapoom, from the Faculty of Public Health, Thammasat University, who has participated in major air pollution and health research projects in Bangkok. She called for more and better exposure data collected at street level to reduce deaths and sickness due to pollution.
“Efforts to communicate air pollution risks need to be sensitive to the socio-cultural context in which the message is imparted. Risk information needs to be easy to understand and relevant, people need to feel they can take meaningful actions, and communicators need to be trusted,” said Dr. Melissa Finucane, a Senior Fellow at the East-West Center.
The 30 experts and graduate students at AIT also proposed several research projects that will help fill the gaps about how to effectively communicate with stakeholders and help them make decisions.
Contact: Dr Sumeet Saksena, Fellow, East-West Center.
Email: saksenas@eastwestcenter.org. Mobile: 084 4157295
