Think before you breathe easy: Air pollution above limit

Bhubaneswar: The air that you breathe in the city is not as safe as you may believe it to be. In fact, it's polluted enough to cause respiratory disorders.

A report by the Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) revealed that pollutants in the ambient air were found to be far above the permissible limit at all the six pollution monitoring stations in the city. To monitor pollution level on a regular basis, the pollution board has installed six pollution monitoring devices at Patrapada, the IRC village, the OSPCB office, the Capital police station, Rasulgarh and at the OSPCB laboratory in Chandrasekharpur.

Surprisingly, it is not vehicular smoke that is the primary pollutant of city air. Pollution board sources said while vehicular pollution can be blamed for contributing 40% of the pollutants, the primary cause of air pollution in Bhubaneswar is stacking of construction material on roadsides and transportation of such materials in trucks and dumpers.

"We have found that the level of particulate matter (PM-10) in the air is between 120 micro gram per metre cube and 213 microgram per metre cube while the permissible limit is 100 micro gram per metre cube," said OSPCB regional officer (Bhubaneswar) Hadibandhu Panigrahi, adding that the pollution board is directing concerned agencies to monitor piling up of construction materials and to ask construction companies to use sprinklers to suppress the dust.

"The Board collates weekly data on air pollution from monitoring stations at six different places to determine the pollution levels. Usually, the PM-10 in the air is found to be higher in winter than in summer. But, a reverse trend is being seen in the city. Although winter is over, we are still recording high PM-10 here," said Panigrahi.

The pollution board is trying to find out the reason as to why the city air is polluted in summer as well. "In winter, the air pollution level remains high continuously; it is very difficult to reverse the trend as the low temperature keeps the air particles at a low level. The polluted air settles at the ground level and is not easily dispersed," he added.

Director, Capital hospital, B B Patnaik, said that every day, about 30-40 adults and around the same number of children report to the hospital with respiratory disorders. "Bad air quality can cause tuberculosis, bronchitis and dry cough," said director.

A TOI story dated 16 January had brought to light the emission of pollutants from the crematorium located in the heart of the city at Satya Nagar. The smoke generated from the burning of human bodies also emits PM-10, which can cause pulmonary diseases. The smoke comes out of the burning chamber through the windows. A chimney is there to direct the smoke through it but it is not working, TOI had reported.

Because of crematorium pollutants, some green campaigners had appealed to the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation to promote use of electric chamber for burning bodies. "We will soon give direction to the City civic body to operationlise the crematorium chimney," said a pollution board officer. "We may also reccommend use of scientific chimney like that of Puri Swargadwar (crematorium)," he added.

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