Revamping air pollution norms need of the hour

Industry leaders express their views on the idea of having a certification facility for air pollution monitoring in India

Air pollution is a global concern and several initiatives are in place to control the rising percentage. With the rise of new industries and other environmental factors, the livelihood of citizens is being compromised by the consequences of rising pollution. Recently, the government announced that India is said to have its own certification facility for air pollution monitoring equipment to tackle the subsequent rise in the air quality.

India’s plan to develop certification facility for air pollution monitoring equipment
India’s plan to develop a certification facility for air pollution monitoring equipment is said to be a welcome move and any development in this regard would provide the much needed impetus in this field and will help reducing the pollutants. ISO has laid down a particular standard for air filtration i.e. ISO 16890, and as it is being implemented worldwide, the same needs to be implemented in India.
Shashi Shekhar, Managing Director, Camfil Air Filtration India Pvt. Ltd says, “We follow the same for all of our products and take a lot of efforts to educate the end users about the same. We are confident that this new standard will gradually be accepted in India as well.”

Aayush Jha, Founder & CEO, Clairco, has also backed the move saying: “The certification facility should’ve been there long back, but it’s better late than never. Lot of newer companies or start-ups are taking up air quality monitoring, where monitors and sensors are being imported from the West. These sensors are calibrated for their environmental situations and locations. They really need to have certification agencies and the cost of certification should be very low. For example, to get a certification done in EU, it will set you back by ₹20-25 lakhs, which is really steep for a start-up. So the certification should be introduced and it would be a very welcome change.”

Effectiveness of present pollution control solutions
Air pollution is global concern and there has been a lot of efforts in India by the government to curb this. Shekhar says that there has been a big jump in the range of products being offered by various companies for indoor and outdoor air quality, but the major concern is the lack of awareness on air pollution among people.

A recent study suggests that the indoor environment can be up to 50 times more polluted than the outdoor. With the discovery of PM1 particle in air, we need to be more aware of the problems that we are facing. Shekhar says, “While we can have enough products to tackle air pollution, we still need to educate people on how to choose the right product for their problems. We must go for energy saving solutions, which has globally approved certifications and standards.”

However, Jha says that lot of new technologies are being introduced. “If you bring down the overall power consumption of cities, the thermal power plants, which are making a lot of CO2 and other carbon-based gases will go down. We really need to move to the next level of energy efficiency,” he adds. “Unless and until we bring down the overall power consumption of cities, the air pollution will not go down.”

Jha further adds that India is moving to BS VI for all vehicular emissions, which is a great move to bring certain ease to the overall pollution levels. However, the Central Pollution Control Board, police, or administration at the ground level should focus on implementing the laws, which are already there.

Challenges while implementing pollution control mechanisms
The main challenge is lack of awareness, says Shekhar, which lead companies to opt for short term benefits for immediate cost savings by choosing high energy consuming products rather than focusing on long term benefits.

Meanwhile, Jha says that very less industries and plants have air quality monitoring available. Even if they are monitoring air quality to a certain level, they are monitoring very few parameters. Jha says, “For example, almost no thermal plant or steel plant is measuring particulate matter around them. They are not measuring CO2 in real time. Even if they are, it’s not being published anywhere. Unless and until you monitor air quality, you cannot solve that problem. All manufacturing plants need to have air quality monitoring as a compulsion. The government will have to focus on that. If they have the data they can take measures to ensure cleaner air quality and also levy fines.”

Dwindling air quality monitoring services
Jha remarks that India’s air quality has really gone down and all tier 1 and a most of the tier 2 cities have incredibly bad air quality. He believes that agricultural practices, construction, vehicular movements, and India’s naturally loose and dusty soil are some of the reasons why we have a lot of pollution in India.
“Lot of cities in India are reeling under poor air quality. What needs to be done is very simple; we need to bring down the ancient agricultural practices and have better solutions,” says Jha. He further mentions that in construction, there are laws, which are not being executed. “For example, you might’ve seen nets covering the sides of under construction building. It is mandatory to ensure that dust doesn’t escape that area and go into nearby places. Similarly, all industries have some or the other issues, which needs to be addressed.”
“In heavy construction industries, there’s no air quality monitoring happening. In EU, companies generating lot of air pollution are fined heavily and this should happen in India as well,” Jha suggests.

Meanwhile, Shekhar believes that we should start with building awareness in terms of identifying the hazards of air pollution and letting the relevant public know the impact of these hazards and explain the benefits of deploying a proper system in their workplace. “The Indian Standards for the sector should be brought in line with what is being followed globally and which have been accepted by industries,” Shekhar concludes.

In EU, companies generating lot of air pollution are fined heavily and this should happen in India as well
Aayush Jha, Founder & CEO, Clairco

The Indian Standards for the sector should be brought in line with what is being followed globally and which have been accepted by industries
Shashi Shekhar, Managing Director, Camfil Air Filtration India Pvt Ltd