Ambient Air Quality Standards in Asia: Is there a trend towards stricter standards?

1. Ambient Air Quality Standards in Asia: Is there a trend towards stricter standards? Elisea Gozun Better Air Quality Workshop 2006 Yogyakarta, Indonesia 13-15 December Sustainable Urban Mobility in Asia A CAI-Asia Program

2. Outline of Presentation • Timeline of Establishment of National Ambient AQ standards • Relationship of Ambient Air Quality Standards in Asia with WHO guideline values, US-EPA and EU standards • Status of urban quality and ambient Concentration of PM versus the new WHO PM standards • PM2.5 standards in Asia • AQ monitoring in Asia • Conclusions

3. Establishment of National Ambient AQ standards Bangladesh 1997, updated in 2005 India 1980, updates in 1986, 1994 and proposed for updates Indonesia 1999 Malaysia 1989 Mongolia 1998 Nepal 2003 Philippines 1999 PRC 1996, updated in 2000 Sri Lanka 1994 with plans for update in 2008 Thailand 1981 and updated in 1995 Viet Nam 1995 with plans to update soon No standards – Afghanistan, Bhutan, Lao PDR, Pakistan

4. Ambient Air Quality Standards in Asia

5. Annual Ambient Air Quality Standards for PM10 WHO 2005 IT-1 WHO 2005 IT-2 WHO 2005 IT-3 WHO 2005 USEPA EU *No annual ambient air quality standards, only 24-hour limits

6. PM10 Annual Ambient Concentrations in Asian Cities (2005) (1) WHO 2005 Guideline Value for Annual Average of PM10 = 20 µg/m3

7. PM10 Annual Ambient Concentrations in Asian Cities (2005) (2) WHO 2005 PM10 Interim Target – 1 = 30 µg/m3

8. PM10 Annual Ambient Concentrations in Asian Cities (2005) (3) WHO 2005 PM10 Interim Target – 2 = 50 µg/m3

9. WHO 2005 PM10 Interim Target – 3 = 70 µg/m3 PM10 Annual Ambient Concentrations in Asian Cities (2005) (4)

10. Ambient Air Quality Standards in Asia: PM2.5 • PM2.5 is increasingly acknowledged by WHO, USEPA, and the EU as the major pollutant of concern because of very high correlation with associated health impacts • In almost all Asian countries, standards for PM2.5 have not been legislated and there seem to be no immediate plans from Asian governments to develop PM 2.5 standards • Only Singapore and recently Bangladesh have adopted PM2.5 standards based on the old USEPA standards • As a consequence, PM2.5 is not regularly monitored by Asian governments and only ad-hoc monitoring from project-based studies are available • This poses a serious challenge for assessing health impacts of PM2.5 and the formulation and implementation of PM 2.5 control strategies

11. Air Quality Monitoring • With the exception of few countries, most Asian countries do not have immediate and clear plans to expand or upgrade existing AQ monitoring systems • Pakistan has indicated its plans to establish continuous AQ monitoring stations in five major cities in 2007 • CPCB in India has established real-time continuous monitoring of pollutants in four locations in Delhi and is now considering expansion of AQ monitoring capacity • The number and location of existing monitoring stations are generally not representative of the population • Failure to ensure the sustainability of operations of AQ monitoring stations and regular maintenance of equipment have caused degradation and inoperability of several AQ monitoring stations in Asian countries • Ozone monitoring is rarely conducted, hence information on ozone levels of Asia is limited.

12. Conclusions • Timely review of the Ambient AQ standards in Asia and adoption of interim targets based on updated WHO air quality guidelines. • Long-term goal of harmonization of standards in Asia • Upgrading of AQ monitoring systems especially for PM2.5 and O3.