Air pollution

• a release into the atmosphere of any

substances of chemicals or airborne
particles, which are harmful both to the
human and animal health as well as the
health of the wider environment.
• mostly a by-product of human
activity, and is now an issue of great
international concern.
• Pollution had been known to exist for
centuries, but it became an issue of
serious concern only in the last 200
years or so, mostly due to the industrial
revolution.

What is air pollution?

Internal air pollution
• The presence of one or more
contaminants indoors that carry a
certain degree of human health risk.
• Various studies show that people spend
65 to 90 percent of their time indoors;
65 percent of that time is spent at
home.
• Field studies of human exposure to air
pollutants indicate that indoor air levels
of many pollutants may be two to five
times, and on occasion more than one
hundred times, higher than outdoor
levels.

What is air pollution?

External air pollution
• There are natural and
anthropogenic (human-made)
causes of external air pollution.
• Natural causes of pollution may
include forest fires and volcano
eruptions as well as vegetation,
oceans and decay processes in
soil.
• Fossil fuels (oil, gas & coal) are the
largest anthropogenic sources of air
pollution – they are widely used in
industry and everyday life.

What is air pollution?

Air Pollution Causes
Atmospheric pollution occurs because the release of air pollutants takes place
at a rate much faster than they can be accommodated by the environment
and removed from the atmosphere without causing serious harm.

Air pollution causes

Air Pollution Effects

We can distinguish between short-term acute

effects and long-term chronic effects of air
pollution.
• Air pollutants enter the body primarily through the
respiratory system which thus becomes their main
victim.
• Each air pollutant exerts their own specific
adverse impacts, ranging from mild to really
damaging.

Apart from taking general steps to deal with indoor

pollution, such as direct removal of pollution
sources and ventilation, home air cleaners &
home air purifiers are also used to keep indoor
environments clean and healthy.

Air pollution effects

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 8749 or commonly known as
“Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999”
SEC. 2. Declaration of Principles, states;
o The State shall protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced and
healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature.
o The State shall promote and protect the global environment to attain
sustainable development while recognizing the primary responsibility of
local government units to deal with environmental problems.
o The State recognizes that the responsibility of cleaning the habitat and
environment is primarily area-based.
o The State also recognizes the principle that “polluters must pay”.
o Finally, the State recognizes that a clean and healthy environment is for the good
of all and should, therefore, be the concern of all.

R.A. 8749 Phil. Clean Air Act of 1999

Key feature of Clean Air Act of 1999

• Identification and characterization of all airsheds in the country and

establishment of multi-sectoral AQM Boards for each airshed

• Development of a national air quality management framework, and a

fund to be earmarked for air quality management activities

• Imposition of air quality management charges

• Improvement in quality of gasoline and diesel and promotion of

alternative, cleaner fuels

R.A. 8749 Phil. Clean Air Act of 1999

• Means the general amount of pollution present in a broad area; and refers to
the atmosphere's average purity as distinguished from discharge
measurements taken at the source of pollution.
• The condition of the air in the outdoor environment, directly affects the health
of humans and ecosystems.

Ambient air quality

 NATIONAL AMBIENT AIR
QUALITY GUIDELINE VALUES

Ambient air quality

a) Maximum limits represented by ninety-eight percentile (98%) values not to
exceed more than once a year.
b) Arithmetic mean.
c) SO2 and suspended particulate matter are sampled once every six days
when using the manual methods. A minimum of twelve sampling days per
quarter or forty-eight sampling days each year is required for these methods.
Daily sampling may be done in the future once continuous analyzers are
procured and become available.
d) Limits for Total Suspended Particulate Matter with mass median diameter
less than 25-50 pm.
e) Annual Geometric Mean.

Ambient air quality

• A significant 33% improvement was observed with concentrations decreasing from
144 to 97 microgram per normal cubic meter (µg/Ncu.m.)
• Although trends are decreasing, TSP geometric mean concentrations are still above
the 90 µg/Ncu.m. annual mean TSP guideline value for one year averaging time
(Table 3).
• As such, more efforts are needed to comply with the guideline by 2010 as provided
in the General Plan of Action for Air Quality Management. The locations of the
ambient (roadside and general area) air quality monitoring stations in the different
regions of the Philippines and the corresponding TSP concentrations (1 year 24-hour
averaging time) are shown in Table 4.

Ambient air quality

There are eight stations of the ten station network that are complete and operational . All
eight stations are currently online and measure criteria and non-criteria pollutants. The
criteria pollutants are :
• particulate matter (PM10 ),
• sulfur dioxide,
• carbon monoxide,
• nitrogen dioxide,
• ozone and lead.
The non-criteria pollutants are:
• benzene,
• Toluene
• xylene.
The network measures also meteorological data which include, wind direction, vertical
wind speed, wind speed, temperature, relative humidity, net radiation, barometric
pressure, solar radiation ( 400-1100 nm) and uv radiation (295-385 nm).

Eight observatory stations

 Location
1. Ateneo- Katipunan,
2. Quezon City,
3. Clark Air Base-Pampanga,
4. Los Baños, Laguna,
5. NAMRIA- Fort Bonifacio,
6. PUP-Sta Mesa, Cavite,
7. Batangas
8. Valenzuela.

Eight observatory stations

Air quality samples are collected to:
1) determine compliance with ambient air quality guideline values,
2) activate emergency control procedures that prevent or alleviate air pollution
episodes
3) develop long term strategies
4) observe pollution trends within the Metro Manila airshed.

Eight observatory stations

An airshed is a
contiguous area with
common sources of
air pollution and
weather conditions
which affect the
interchange and
diffusion of pollution in
the surrounding
atmosphere.

airshed
9 INTERIM AIRSHEDS
– Metro Manila Airshed
• NCR
• Region 3 except Nueva Ecija
• Region 4A except Quezon
– Metro Cebu Airshed
– Cagayan de Oro Geothermal Airshed
– Davao Airshed
– Naga City Airshed
– BLIST Airshed (Baguio, La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, Tuba)
– Agusan Del Norte Airshed
– Zamboanga City Airshed

airshed
Metro Manila Air Quality Improvement Sector
Development Program (MMAQISDP)
- The MMAQISDP is an Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan-financed program implemented
by various national government agencies headed by the DENR. Its general objective is to
promote policy reforms to improve air quality through the abatement of mobile and stationary
sources of air pollution. It focuses on the Metro Manila air shed, the location of the main
concentrations of air pollution, but policies developed have nationwide implications and/or
may be replicated in other airsheds.

• The MMAQISDP was completed on December 2007. An initial assessment of its

activities’ environmental impact was conducted in 2006 which yielded the following
results:
1. 87% reduction in ambient lead concentration from 1999 to 2000 as a result of the
gradual phase out of lead in gasoline beginning 1994;
2. 10% reduction in TSP from 1999 to 2005; and
3. 87% reduction in total mass of SOx emitted by mobile sources was achieved due
primarily to reduction in sulphur content of automotive diesel fuel.

• The same Program was able to reap the following benefits in improving air quality
management in the Metro Manila airshed:
a) a delineated Metro Manila Airshed and a working Governing Board
b) issuance and implementation of policies on emission standards for both mobile and
stationary sources of pollution, emission testing, incentives for industries, fuel standards
and clean fuels
c) capacity building for the EMB in the following areas: ambient air quality monitoring,
stack testing and monitoring, enforcement of Clean Air Act, permitting, and public
awareness.
International development programs
USAID-Energy and Clean Air Project (ECAP)
• The USAID-ECAP is a four-year project which started last October 2004. The project
provided technical assistance to government agencies and selected civil society
partners that are working on power sector reforms and cleaner air. ECAP operates in
four project sites,
namely:
o Metro Manila
o Baguio
o Cebu
o Davao

by partnering with key academic institutions as ECAP’s project offices. Some of its
initiatives include strengthening local governance for clean air; strengthening motor
vehicle inspection and maintenance; enabling public utility transport sector compliance
with emission standards in the Clean Air Act; and sustaining constituencies for clean air
and power sector reforms.
Usaid-ecap
• The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in its response to the worsening
air quality brought about by excessive pollution for motor vehicle emissions in Metro Manila, entered
into a cooperative agreement with Infinite Progression Foundation, Inc. (IPFI) for a two-year project
that aims to promote public awareness and actions to reduce vehicle emissions in Metro Manila by
addressing the problem of poorly maintained public utility vehicles plying the roads of Metro Manila
with uncalibrated fuel injection pumps.

• The strategies to implement the preventive maintenance system include:

1) comprehensive training and technical consultancy assistance on proper vehicle maintenance and
injection calibration;
2) coalition building of PUV operators and drivers as leaders in advocating for preventive maintenance
practices;
3) establishment of reputable calibration centers; and
4) program for monitoring and documentation for skills upgrading and technology transfer. The target
beneficiaries are jeepney and bus drivers/operators and the general public in Metro Manila.

• The project, through USAID assistance, organized the Champion for Reduction of Air Pollution
from Motor Vehicle Emission (CRAVE), a coalition of 30-50 core group leaders from public utility
transport sector that aims to continue the project’s Preventive Maintenance advocacy work. It has
conducted a number of seminars and trainings on preventive maintenance system to about 900
jeepney/bus drivers and operators in Metro Manila.

Vehicle emission reduction programs

• Alternative Fuels Program
• Motor Vehicle Inspection System (MVIS) Project
• Private Emission Testing Center (PETC) Program

Other programs
More than 110 local authorities have so far produced air quality action plans that are integrated into the Local
Transport Plan where road transport is the major source of emissions. Common elements of plans include:
• Inclusion of air quality in relevant decision making processes e.g. land use planning;

• Working with relevant agencies, such as the Highways or Environment Agencies on emission reduction
measures;
• Local traffic management measures to reduce emissions in problem areas e.g. low emission zones

• Strategies to inform the public of local air quality issues, to raise awareness and to change travel behaviours

• Congestion schemes or workplace parking levies (the congestion charge zone in London has reduced the levels
of particulate matter emitted from exhausts within the zone by ~12%3, but was not introduced or designed as part
of an action plan);

• Working with public transport partners to reduce bus and taxi emissions through technical fixes; and,

• Green travel schemes for council employees e.g. car sharing.

Air quality action plans

Characterization and Source Identification of Ambient Air
PM10 in Metro Manila by Nuclear and Related Analytical
Techniques

• The Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) has

continued research to generate information on the
sources of particulate pollution and their contribution
through the use of nuclear and related analytical
techniques. Data for PM10 and PM2.5 (Figures 4 and 5,
Tables 5 and 6 shown in Section 3 on Ambient Air
Quality)., black carbon and elemental concentrations
such as that of Pb are also generated.
• Air pollutants at receptor sites, anthropogenic and/or
natural origin, may be in different mixed-up forms.
• With the use of nuclear and related analytical techniques
such as the X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (XRF) to
generate multi-element data for receptor modeling, the
research aimed to address the following questions:

PNRI analytical techniques

Dry Deposition Monitoring in Metro Manila and Los Baños, Laguna (Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East
Asia).

Dry deposition samples are collected using the filter pack method on a weekly basis. Samples are analyzed by
ion chromatography method for SO42-, NO3-, and Cl- while NH3 is measured using the colorimetry method.
HNO3, HCl, and NH4+ are calculated from their respective ion concentrations.

During the 2005-2007 monitoring activities, all the measured gas species in the urban site (represented by Metro
Manila) had higher concentration levels than those in the rural site (represented by Los Baños).
• SO2 had the highest concentration level in the urban site while NH3 had the highest concentration level in
the rural site. In both sites, HNO3 had the least concentration level followed by HCl. Comparing the overall
mean values,
• Metro Manila’s SO2 concentration level was almost eight times more than that the concentration level in Los
Baños. HNO3 concentration level in Metro Manila was almost four times the Los Baños level, while NH3 and
HCl were twice the concentration levels in Los Baños.

Dry deposition monitoring

Table 15 - Annual Mean Levels of SO2, HNO3, HCl and NH3 in Metro Manila and Los
Baños for the period 2005-2007
Dry deposition monitoring
Figure 14 - Time Series Concentration
of Gases in Metro Manila (2005-2007)

Figure 15 - Time Series Concentration

of Gases in Los Baños (2005-2007)

Dry deposition monitoring

• The contribution of the transport sector to the worsening air pollution
requires immediate attention inasmuch as mobile sources account for the
bigger percentage of the pollutants present in the air particularly in Metro
Manila, not to mention its effects to the health of the city dwellers
• It is a reality that there is a direct correlation between the worsening traffic
situation and increasing emission of pollutants
• Unsustainable urbanization leads to growing traffic congestion necessitating
costly transport planning and management
• The aspect of air quality monitoring and assessment still needs improvement
as most of the monitoring stations are traffic-exposed

VI. challenges
• To further improve air quality monitoring and assessment:
• Strengthen industry self-regulation programs;
• Fast track the nationwide implementation of the M.V.I.S.;
• Strengthen monitoring of compliance on fuel specifications by oil
companies;
• For LGU to strengthen their programs in prohibition of open burning of
wastes;
• Strengthen air-related researches;
• Intensify public awareness and education on air pollution prevention among
all stakeholders;
• Strengthen anti-smoke belching operations by LGUs;
• Results of air quality monitoring should be made known to the LGUs
concerned particularly those which frequently exceed the guideline values;
and
• Encourage the active participation of civil society in the monitoring of the
implementation of the Clean Air Act.

VI. challenges