The air quality of the federal capital on Tuesday was recorded healthy as hazardous air pollutants were below the permissible limits in the atmosphere due to reduced vehicular traffic as the severe heatwave restricted public mobility on roads.
The air quality data has been collected by the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) which monitors air pollutants ratio for 24 hours based on three intervals of eight hours of data collection from different locations.
The Pak-EPA data revealed that the air quality throughout the three intervals of data monitoring remained benign as the pollutants were less than the permissible limits of national environmental quality standards (NEQS).
The hazardous air pollutant particulate matter of 2.5 microns (PM2.5) which was a lethal atmospheric contaminant remained at 19.66 microgrammes per cubic meter on average which is below the NEQS of 35 mic-programs per cubic meter and denotes the air quality healthy.
The PM2.5 is generated through combustion of an engine, industrial emissions, burning garbage or inflammable material, and dust blown up by fast-moving cars plying on non-cemented patches of the roads.
However, a slight jump in previous days was mainly due to congestion of automobiles plying on the roads as tourists thronged the capital’s recreational spots, he said
The nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulphur dioxide (SO2) were recorded below the permissible ratios as it was recorded 5.29 and 15.5 micro-grams per cubic meter in the past 24 hours in the atmosphere against the NEQS of 80 and 120 micro-grams per cubic meter respectively.
