Scientists concerned as the United States cease to share air quality data

By Taiwo Adebayo and Sibi Arasu, Associated Press

NEW DELHI (AP) – The American government will stop sharing air quality data collected from its embassies and consulates, worrying the scientists and local experts who say that the effort was vital to monitor global air quality and improve public health.

In response to a survey by the Associated Press, the State Department said on Wednesday that its air quality monitoring program would no longer transmit the air pollution data for embassies and consulates to the AirNow Applications of the Environmental Protection Agency and other platforms, which has enabled residents of various countries, as well as scientists from around the world, to see and analyze the air quality in the world.

The data sharing stop was “due to financing constraints that led the department to deactivate the underlying network” read the declaration, which added that the embassies and consulates were invited to maintain their monitors in progress and that data sharing could resume in the future if it was funded. The budget cut, reported for the first time by the New York Times, is one of the many people under President Donald Trump, whose administration has priority of environmental and climatic initiatives.

American air quality monitors have measured the dangerous fine particles, known as PM2.5, which can penetrate deep into the lungs and cause respiratory diseases, cardiac conditions and premature death. The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution kills around 7 million people each year.

The news of data sharing caused an immediate reaction to scientists who declared that the data was reliable, allowed for air quality surveillance worldwide and helped governments clean the air.

“ A big blow ” in global research of air quality

Bhargav Krishna, an atmospheric pollution expert in Futures Sustainable Futures collaboration, based in New Delhi, called the “a blow” data for air quality research.

“They were part of a handful of sensors in many developing countries and served as a reference to understand what air quality looked like,” said Krishna. “They were also considered a well -calibrated and impartial data source to cross -check local data in the event of concern about quality.”

“It’s a real shame,” said Alejandro Piracoca Mayorga, an independent air quality consultant based in Bogota, Colombia. The American embassies and consulates in Lima, Peru, Sao Paulo and Bogota had public air surveillance. “This was a source of access to air quality information regardless of local surveillance networks. They provided another source of information for comparison. »»

Khalid Khan, an environmental expert and defender based in Pakistan, agreed, affirming that the closing of air quality monitoring “will have significant consequences”.

Khan noted that the peshawar monitors, Pakistan, one of the most polluted cities in the world, “provided crucial data in real time” which helped decision -makers, researchers and the public to make decisions on their health.

“Their abolition means a critical gap in environmental surveillance, leaving residents without specific information on dangerous air conditions,” said Khan. He said vulnerable people in Pakistan and worldwide are particularly at risk because they are the least likely to have access to other reliable data.

In Africa, the program has provided air quality data in more than a dozen countries, including Senegal, Nigeria, Chad and Madagascar. Some of these countries depend almost entirely on American surveillance systems for their air quality data.

The WHO air quality database will also be affected by the closing of the American program. Many poor countries do not follow air quality because the stations are too expensive and complex to maintain, which means that they fully depend on the American embassy surveillance data.

Monitors have strengthened local efforts

In some places, American air quality monitors have propelled nations to start their own research on air quality and raise awareness, said Krishna.

In China, for example, data from the United States Embassy in Beijing has contradicted official government reports, showing worse levels of pollution than authorities. This has led China to improve air quality.

Managers of the Eastern Punjab province of Pakistan, who fights with SMOG, said they were not imperturbable by the withdrawal of American monitors. Environment Secretary Raja Jahangir said the Punjab authorities had their own and planned to buy 30 others.