Pakistan Observer
Published Date: Feb 1, 2013
Assessment of air pollution
Friday,
February 01, 2013 – Islamabad-Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI)
and European Environment Bureau (EEB), Brussels
have agreed to collaborate for a joint study on assessing mercury air pollution in selected cities in
the country.
The
contract was signed by Mr. Jeremey Wates, Secretary, EEB and Dr. Abid Qayyum
Suleri, Executive Director, on behalf of SDPI. Elena Lymberidi-Settimo, Project
manager, and Dr. Mahmood A. Khwaja, senior adviser, chemicals and sustainable
industrial development, SDPI would be the focal persons for the project
activities which would be undertaken with the support of Ministry of disaster management and environmental protection agencies
(EPAs).
Mercury
air monitoring would be
carried out with Lumex mercury analyzer, at Peshawar, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and
Lahore. The envisaged monitoring sites would be in/outside dental clinics, light manufacturing products
industry, chlor-alkali plant, hospital incinerators and wastes sites.Mercury
poses risks to environment and human health, especially of children. Early this
month, 140 countries in Geneva adopted a ground-breaking, world’s first legally
binding treaty on mercury, limiting the use and emission of health-hazardous
mercury.-NNI