Min-Ling Wang, Deputy Executive Manager, Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan

Though research has shown the influence of air pollutant PM 2.5¹ for decades, the Air Quality Annual Report of R.O.C.(Taiwan) published by the Environmental Protection Administration Executive Yuan, R.O.C. (Taiwan) (EPA) did not address  the pollutants of PM2.5 until 2013. It is the first time that the official report has included this major pollutant identified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). However, the belated information disclosed in the report is so vague that people cannot realize several serious environmental risks they are facing.

First, according to the 2013 report, the percentage of days that exceeds air pollution quality standards among recorded days Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) was 1.42%. The value seems pretty low and harmless; however, the result did not include the PM2.5 in the monitoring report. This leads to the misconception among local residents who think the air quality is better than what they actually experience, especially for people who are living near by the industrial zones in Kaohsiung and suffering from stinky air three or four days a week.

Second, the annual arithmetic mean concentration of air pollutants in the report included PM10, SO2, NO2, CO, O3, except PM 2.5 as major pollutants. People in Kaohsiung and Pintung do not have information of how much PM 2.5 they are breathing in every year.

Kaohsiung is heavily polluted. Take PM10 for example, the monitoring station in Zuoying District established by the Citizen of the Earth, an environmental NGO in Taiwan, shows that the average concentration of PM10 is 72 μg/m3, which is much higher than the Taiwan’s average of 53 μg/m3 and is 2.5 times higher than that of Hualien monitoring station. The air quality in Kaohuing and Pintung is much lower than the average but people who are living in this area have limited access to the information about PM2.5, which is carcinogenic and much more harmful to our health than PM10. The EPA only disclosed the information of PM2.5 collected by the monitoring stations in Cianjin (前金) and Zuoying (左營). We would like to challenge the report here by posing a question: why PM2.5 is not recognized and counted as a major pollutant?

Third, there should have more data collected from multiple monitoring stations in big cities like Kaohsiung. EPA may argue that the data collected in Cianjin may represent pollution level in Zuoying since these two districts are right next to each other. How about the rest of districts in Kaohsiung that are far away from Cianjin District? Furthermore, how can we ensure whether the PM2.5 disclosed in the report could match data collected in monitoring station of Meinong (美濃), Daliao (大寮), Fongshan (鳳山) and Siaogang (小港)?　How can we compare those to the data collected from the monitoring stations in Central and Northern Taiwan?

Research has shown that the surface of the molecular, PM2.5, is very likely to attach other toxin elements such as dioxin, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon(PAD) and heavy metal particles. Therefore, we are anxious to know to what degree the air has been polluted withPM2.5 and how much PM2.5 we have been breathing in. especially in a city heavily surrounded by petrochemical industry, steel industry and coal-burning electricity industry like Kaohsiung? Unfortunately, the EPA’s annual report leaves no trace about the composition of PM 2.5.

We urge EPA should classify PM2.5 as a major air pollutant and include it in the annual report and other public information. We have been misled and uninformed about the air quality we are breathing in. People in Taiwan, have rights to fully understand their risks to air pollution and the air quality surrounding their living areas. It is the government’s obligation and responsibility to reveal and inform the public environmental risks, and take actions to reduce risks in society.

Note:
1.PM2.5 refers to particulate matters that has diameter of 2.5μm or less. It has impacts on climate and precipitation and adversely affects human health. PM2.5 worths noting because it tends to penetrate into the gas exchange regions of the lung (alveolus), and very small particles (< 100 nanometers) may pass through the lungs to affect other organs.