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Pakistan Observer

Published Date: Mar 7, 2013

Project launched to measure mercury pollution

Pakistan’s
first ever project to measure mercury pollution in the air was launched here on
Wednesday. The collaborative project started by Sustainable Development Policy
Institute (SDPI), European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and Zero Mercury Working
Group (ZMWG), is an attempt to identify and monitor ‘Mercury emission and
release sites’ in various cities of Pakistan and assess their air quality to
protect environment and human health.

As
part of commencement activities, the teams of SDPI monitors have been trained
on Lumex Mercury Analyzer and other specialized field instruments to accurately
collect and note measurements.

The
project was formally launched by SDPI’s Executive Director, Dr. Abid Qayyum
Suleri and Deputy Executive Director, Dr. Vaqar Ahmad. Main feature of the
launch was a demo measurement of mercury pollution at SDPI office, which the
team selected as their first sampling site in Pakistan. The team took indoor
and outdoor air samples along with other climatic parameters such as
temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction. The results showed mercury
level to be between 10.44 – 10.89 (n=9) nano gram per cubic meter of the air.
These levels are considered safe, and are far below than the permissible limit
(2000 ng/M3) for safe occupational health and safety.

SDPI
monitoring team is now going to visit Lahore for further monitoring at
different sampling sites, including dental clinics, light products
manufacturing industry and chlor-alkali plant. Lahore visit would be followed
up by similar studies at sites in Peshawar, Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

The
project has garnered widespread support across the country where Ministry of
Disaster Management, Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak – EPA) and
Institute of Chemical Sciences, Peshawar University, Khyber PakhtunKhawa had
already extended their support for the study.

Mercury
(Hg), known as ‘quick silver’ poses serious risks not only to environment but
also to human health. Earlier 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.

Mercury
sources are quite diverse, ranging from thermometers, electric bulbs, and switches
to power plants, coal fired power stations, metal smelters, gold mining and
cement industry. It is also employed in some cosmetics like facial creams and
dental treatments like mercury amalgam filling. A persistent pollutant, Mercury
is not limited to its source but it travels and sometimes found thousands of
kilometers away from the source.

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