by Neu -Delhi (AP) -The US government will stop sharing air quality data collected by their messages and consulates, and concerns about local scientists and experts, which say that the efforts to monitor global air quality and improve public health are crucial.
In response to an investigation by the Associated Press, the Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday that its program of air quality would not be transferred to the air -pollution data from the Airnow app of the Environmental Protection Agency and other platforms that enabled the locals in different countries together with scientists around the world to see and to see air quality in cities around the world analyze.
The stop in the release of data was “on the basis of financing restrictions that led to the fact that the department eliminated the underlying network”. Read the explanation in which it has been added that messages and consulates have been instructed to keep their monitors going and that data could be released in the future if financed. The fiscal reduction, which was first reported by the New York Times, is one of many under President Donald Trump, the administration of whose administration gets environmental and climate coitiative.
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The US air quality monitors have measured dangerous fine particles that are referred to as PM2.5 and penetrate deep into the lungs and can lead to respiratory diseases, heart disease and early death. The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution kills around 7 million people every year.
The news about the reduction of data exchange led to an immediate reaction of scientists that the data were reliable, enabled the monitoring of air quality around the world and initiated the governments to eliminate the air.
“A big blow” for global air quality research
Bhargav Krishna, expert of air pollution in the collaborative collaboration of New Delhi, described the loss of data as a “big stroke” for air quality research.
“They were part of a handful of sensors in many developing countries and served as a reference to understand how air quality was,” said Krishna. “They were also regarded as well -calibrated and impartial data source to check local data if there are concerns about quality.”
“It’s a real shame,” said Alejandro Piracoca Mayorga, a freelance air quality consultant based in Bogota. US messages and consulates in Lima, Sao Paulo and Bogota have public air surveillance. “It was a source for access to air quality information regardless of local monitoring networks. They provided another source of information for comparison. “
Khalid Khan, a rural expert and lawyer based in Pakistan, agreed and said that the shutdown of the air quality monitoring would “have significant consequences”.
Khan found that the monitors in the city of Peshawar in Pakistan, one of the most dirty cities in the world, “deliver important real -time data” that helped the political decision -makers, researchers and the public to make decisions about their health.
“Your distance means a critical gap in environmental surveillance and leave residents without precise information about dangerous air conditions,” said Khan. He said that people in need of protection in Pakistan and all over the world are particularly at risk because they have the least access to other reliable data.
In Africa, the program provided air quality data for over a dozen countries, including Senegal, Nigeria, Chad and Madagascar. Some of these countries are almost exclusively dependent on the US surveillance systems for their air quality data.
The WHO air quality database will also be affected by the conclusion of the US program. Many poor countries do not pursue air quality because the stations are too expensive and complex, which means that they are completely dependent on data for monitoring the US message.
Monitors have reinforced the local efforts
In some places, the US air quality monitors drives the nations to start their own air quality research and raise awareness, said Krishna.
In China, for example, data from the US embassy in Beijing is known to disagree with official government reports that showed a poor level of pollution than the authorities recognized. It led to China improved air quality.
Officials in the Pakistani province of Ostpunjab, who has to fight with Smog, said they were unimpressed by the removal of the US monitors. Environment Minister Raja Jahangir said that Punjab’s authorities had their own and plan to buy 30 more.
Shweta Narayan, a campaign manager of the global climate and health alliance, said that the closure of the monitors in India was a “big setback”, but also a “critical opportunity” for the Indian government to strengthen and close the gaps.
“By strengthening its own infrastructure of air quality, ensuring data transparency and building public trust in air quality reporting, India can determine a benchmark for accounting and environmental administration,” said Narayan.
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Babar Dogar in Lahore, Pakistan, Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, Aniruddha Ghosal in Hanoi, Vietnam and Steven Grattan in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report. Adebayo reported from Abuja, Nigeria.
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