Antara 16 Oct 09;
Surabaya, East Java (ANTARA News) - Surabaya has been named as the third most polluted city in Asia, head of the East Java Environment Agency Dewi J Putriatni said here on Friday.
"Surabaya is third after Bangkok and Jakarta as the most polluted cities in the Asia region," she said.
Dewi expressed disappointment with the result of the survey since Surabaya has always been a national finalist for the cleanliness award, Adipura, from the Environmental Affairs Ministry.
"This is ironic," she said, adding that from 38 districts in East Java, 25 among had received the Adipura award from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
"We urge the Environment Ministry to revise the judging criteria for the Adipura award," Dewi added.
According to her, evaluation of the Adipura award only focused on city`s cleanliness, including the trash dumping system.
"I suggest the committee to also put air quality as one of the variables," she said adding that the East Java administration also needs to find a solution to air pollution problems in Surabaya.
Air pollution is known as dangerous to human beings. According to a study in the United States published online on April 2009 in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal, women who lived within 50 meters of highways or primary, multi-lane roads were 31 percent more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis (RA) than those who lived more than 200 meters from highways.
The study also found that women who lived within 50 meters of the largest highways had a 63-percent increased risk.
The study based its findings on analysis of the records of 90, 000 women and measurement of the distance between each woman`s home and the nearest major roadways.
"Even after accounting for the effects of age, race, sex, socioeconomic status and smoking, the increased risk for women located near major roads remained substantially higher," Jaime Hart, a research fellow in the Channing Laboratory at Brigham and Women`s Hospital in Boston, said in the study.
Previous research also found that air pollution might alter cell activity or reduce the amount of oxygen and nutrients received by a fetus. (*)
Jakarta air among Asia’s cleanest? Say it ain’t so!
Indah Setiawati, The Jakarta Post 16 Oct 09;
The Jakarta Environmental Management Board (BPLHD) made an audacious and uninformed claim Friday that Jakarta’s air quality was the third-highest in Asia.
Right. If all the other cities in Asia were struck off the list.
Misciting data from the Clean Air Initiative Asia (CAI Asia), agency head Peni Susanti said Jakarta’s average level of particulate matter (PM10) was 68.5 micrograms per cubic meter in 2008.
Particulate matter is fine suspended particulates small enough to penetrate deep into the respiratory tract and cause health problems.
“This makes us the number three city in Asia for clean air,” Peni said at a press conference, attributing it to the city’s various green programs.
CAI Asia is an international forum established by the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and USAID to share experiences and build partnerships to improve air quality in Asian cities.
According to the study, Peni said, Singapore ranked first with a PM10 level of 30 micrograms per cubic meter, followed by Surabaya with 60 micrograms per cubic meter — despite the fact Tokyo and Taipei clearly had far lower PM10 levels than the East Java capital.
The study Peni had quoted, available at http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-59689.html, showed Jakarta had the 10th-lowest PM10 level of the 20 cities studied, and was the fifth-cleanest of the Southeast Asian cities.
