Air pollution in Colombo at unhealthy levels

Colombo (News1st): Bangkok is currently grappling with a serious pollution crisis that has been years in the making. The situation in Bangkok has forced the closure of Schools and residents fear for their health. Bangkok's air quality has fallen to harmful levels with the quantity of unsafe dust particles -- known as PM2.5 -- exceeding what is considered safe in 41 areas around the capital. The Air Quality Index, AQI, is used by cities to determine levels of air pollution; according to the World Health Organization, AQI levels under 25 are considered to be acceptable for humans to breathe regularly. The AQI levels on Wednesday evening in Bangkok measured 175. Meanwhile, the real Real-time Air Quality Index (AQI) set up at the US Embassy in Colombo monitored Colombo's AQI at 153. According to the figure, the air quality in Colombo is ranked Unhealthy. A spike in the number of vehicles in the city and industrial pollutants are some of the bigger contributors to the increase of Air Pollution in Colombo. According to the website of the Central Environmental Authority, Annual averages of ambient PM10 levels in Colombo over the years have remained relatively within the 60 to 82 µg/m3 range with a slightly decreasing trend from 1998 to 2011. The site adds "Colombo city is very unhealthy in terms of its particulate pollution. However, there is a slightly decreasing trend of PM-10 from 1998 to 2012."According to the CEA Sulfur Dioxide, Nitrogen Dioxide, Carbon monoxide, Ozone and Pm-10 in ambient air were monitored from 1998 to 2008 at Colombo Fort. However, only the parameter PM10 was measured to ascertain the air quality of the Colombo city as other instruments are out of order to measure other parameters from 2008.