While the quality of air you breathe outdoors is safe and well within the parameters of the World Health Organisation at 2.5 levels of particulate matter (pm), authorities aim to make it considerably cleaner from air pollutants.

 

Officials at Dubai Municipality have confirmed that it is preparing to launch the first portable reference station for monitoring air pollutions. According to the Environment Department, which is the section responsible for carrying out the project, the portable station will be installed in a van that will monitor air pollutants around the clock.

 

According to previous Gulf News reports, there are currently 46 air quality monitoring stations, in addition to a range of dust monitoring stations in crusher and quarry sites, in addition to cement factories.

 

In a statement, Dubai Municipality said: “This station is supported with devices for computer based examination for air samples, as well as sophisticated software, to perform processing operations for captured data and to analyse them immediately.”

 

Although municipality officials were not able to confirm when, or how many, portable stations will be roaming the streets of Dubai, the initiative will feature the latest technology to also monitor levels of radioactive contamination and toxic pollutions.

 

Once the portable stations are up and running, the municipality is expected to receive live data of air pollutants from the city’s busy roads, including nitrogen oxides of nitrogen (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3), and carbon monoxide (CO), among others.

 

Latest statistics provided by the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care, which was published last April, has found that children living within 100 meters of a highway had an average lung function of roughly six per cent lower than that of children living 400 or more meters away from major highways. (Gulf News)