Metro air quality hellish but painted as heavenly

THE country’s biggest organization of doctors has criticized Malacañang for its “misleading” statement saying the quality of air in Metro Manila has improved, when it has not.

Leo Olarte, The Philippine Medical Association’s governor for Manila, on Friday asked the Palace to check with experts before making supposedly scientific pronouncements on the metropolis’ air pollution situation.

Deputy presidential spokeswoman Abigail Valte earlier said the total suspended particles or TSP in the air in Metro Manila improved by 30 percent to 116 micrograms per cubic meter in December 2011 from 166 micrograms in 2010.

Valte has also been criticized for saying that millions of pesos in funds for the opposition congressmen’s districts had been released when nothing actually had been. The opposition accused her of lying.

Ninety micrograms of suspended particulates per cubic meter is supposed to be acceptable, but Olarte said the US Environmental Protection Agency in 1987 discarded the use of TSP to measure air quality if one was seriously considering public health.

The agency said TSP was an old, inaccurate and unacceptable measure of air quality, and in the same year changed the particulate matter index to PM 10 and PM 2.5

The agency says PM 10 is the more accurate particulate matter index to measure the smaller particles that can enter the thorax and affect the lower respiratory tract.

PM2.5 measures the more life-threatening particulate matters that can reach the lungs and go directly to the blood, causing cardiovascular diseases, heart attacks, strokes and even sudden death.

Olarte said PM 10 and PM 2.5 were now the internationally-accepted measures for air quality to determine what really was compatible with human health.

“If you will describe the air quality situation of Metro Manila based on the Jurassic TSP index, it would be like painting hell as something heavenly, which is a far away cry from reality,” Olarte said.

But he said he and his group were happy that Valte confirmed their earlier statement that footprints of corruption were painted all over Metro Manila’s air pollution issue. She called the private emission testing centers “certification mills” passing private vehicles when those were the top polluters.

Olarte said 80 percent of the polluted air in the metropolis was caused directly by the 3.2 million motor vehicles registered in the area.

“You either leave the metropolis and stay elsewhere where it’s safe, or you can stay put but stand up fighting for your constitutional right to life and to breathe clean and healthy air,” he said. –Macon Ramos-Araneta with Maricel Cruz, Manila Standard Today