Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Environment and Forests
17-October-2014 17:38 IST
Government of India
Ministry of Environment and Forests
17-October-2014 17:38 IST
National Air Quality Index (AQI) launched by the Environment Minister
AQI is a huge initiative under ‘Swachh Bharat’
AQI to act as ‘One Number- One Colour-One Description’ to judge the Air Quality for Common Man: Shri PrakashJavadekar
AQI to act as ‘One Number- One Colour-One Description’ to judge the Air Quality for Common Man: Shri PrakashJavadekar
The Minister for
Environment, Forests & Climate Change Shri Prakash Javadekar today launched
‘The National Air Quality Index’ (AQI) in New Delhi.Speaking
on the occasion, Shri Javadekar outlined the AQI, as ‘One Number- One
Colour-One Description’ for the common man to judge the air quality within his
vicinity. The formulation of the index was a continuation of the initiatives
under Swachh Bharat Mission envisioned by the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri
NarendraModi.
Elaborating
further, the Minister stated that the index constituted part of the
Government’s mission to introduce the culture of cleanliness. Institutional and
infrastructural measures were being undertaken in order to ensure that the
mandate of cleanliness was fulfilled across the country. As a part of the
process, he mentioned that clean air would be a part of Peoples’ campaignto
take up the issue in a mission mode. In order to widen the ambit of the culture
of cleanliness, the Ministry proposed to discuss the issues concerned regarding
quality of air with the Ministry of Human Resource Development in order to
include this issue as part of the sensitizationprogramme in the course
curriculum.
Under
the new measurement process, Shri Javadekar stated that an effort had been made
to include a comprehensive set of parameters. While the earlier measuring index
was limited to three indicators, the current measurement index had been made
quite comprehensive by the addition of five additional parameters. Under the
current measurement of air quality, 8 parameters. The initiatives undertaken by
the Ministry recently aimed at balancing environment and conservation and
development.
Air pollution
has been a matter of environmental and health concerns,particularly in urban
areas. Central Pollution Control Board along with State Pollution Control
Boards has been operating National Air Monitoring Program (NAMP) covering 240
cities of the country. In addition, continuous monitoring systems that provide
data on near real-time basis are also installed in a few cities.
Traditionally,
air quality status has been reported through voluminous data. Thus, it was
important that information on air quality is put up in public domain
in simple linguistic terms that is easily understood by a common person. Air
Quality Index (AQI) is one such tool for effective dissemination of air quality
information to people. An Expert Group comprising medical professionals, air
quality experts, academia, advocacy groups, and SPCBs was constitutedand a
technical study was awarded to IIT Kanpur. IIT Kanpur and the Expert Group
recommended an AQI scheme.
There are six
AQI categories, namely Good, Satisfactory, Moderately polluted, Poor, Very
Poor, and Severe. The proposed AQI will consider eight pollutants (PM10,
PM2.5, NO2, SO2, CO, O3, NH3,
and Pb) for which short-term (up to 24-hourly averaging period) National
Ambient Air Quality Standards are prescribed.
Based
on the measured ambient concentrations, corresponding standards and likely
health impact, a sub-index is calculated for each of these pollutants. The
worst sub-index reflects overall AQI. Associated likely health impacts for
different AQI categories and pollutants have been also been suggested, with
primary inputs from the medical expert members of the group. The AQI values and
corresponding ambient concentrations (health breakpoints) as well as associated
likely health impacts for the identified eight pollutants are as follows:
AQI Category, Pollutants and Health
Breakpoints
|
||||||||
AQI
Category (Range)
|
PM10
24-hr
|
PM2.5
24-hr
|
NO2
24-hr
|
O3
8-hr
|
CO
8-hr
(mg/m3)
|
SO2
24-hr
|
NH3
24-hr
|
Pb
24-hr
|
Good
(0-50)
|
0-50
|
0-30
|
0-40
|
0-50
|
0-1.0
|
0-40
|
0-200
|
0-0.5
|
Satisfactory
(51-100)
|
51-100
|
31-60
|
41-80
|
51-100
|
1.1-2.0
|
41-80
|
201-400
|
0.5 –1.0
|
Moderately
polluted
(101-200)
|
101-250
|
61-90
|
81-180
|
101-168
|
2.1-
10
|
81-380
|
401-800
|
1.1-2.0
|
Poor
(201-300)
|
251-350
|
91-120
|
181-280
|
169-208
|
10-17
|
381-800
|
801-1200
|
2.1-3.0
|
Very
poor
(301-400)
|
351-430
|
121-250
|
281-400
|
209-748*
|
17-34
|
801-1600
|
1200-1800
|
3.1-3.5
|
Severe
(401-500)
|
430
+
|
250+
|
400+
|
748+*
|
34+
|
1600+
|
1800+
|
3.5+
|
*One
hourly monitoring (for mathematical calculations only)
AQI
|
Associated Health Impacts
|
Good
(0–50)
|
Minimal
Impact
|
Satisfactory
(51–100)
|
May cause
minor breathing discomfort to sensitive people.
|
Moderately polluted
(101–200)
|
May cause
breathing discomfort to people with lung disease such as asthma, and
discomfort to people with heart disease, children and older adults.
|
Poor
(201–300)
|
May cause
breathing discomfort to people on prolonged exposure, and discomfort to
people with heart disease
|
Very Poor
(301–400)
|
May cause
respiratory illness to the people on prolonged exposure. Effect may be more
pronounced in people with lung and heart diseases.
|
Severe
(401-500)
|
May cause
respiratory impact even on healthy people, and serious health impacts on
people with lung/heart disease. The health impacts may be experienced even
during light physical activity.
|
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