As Indonesia Prospers, Air Pollution Takes Toll

JOE COCHRANE New York Times 26 Sep 15;

JAKARTA, Indonesia — The young woman sat on a bench at a bus terminal here one recent morning, listening to her iPod beneath a bright blue sky. But despite the sunshine and a light breeze, the woman, Fety Dwiyanti, wore a face mask. She did not have the flu or a cold, though, she was just worried about what was getting into her lungs.

“It’s because of the air pollution and dust,” she said. “Every time I go outside, I put it on.”

Jakarta, a sprawling city of 10 million, has long had a problem with air pollution. To address it, it phased out the use of leaded gasoline 10 years ago, among other measures. But as the economy has grown at a rapid clip over the last decade, the number of vehicles in the capital has soared, with more people able to afford them. And air quality has gotten worse.

That has led to a strange development: a rise in the number of “blue sky days” — when the air is clear enough to allow views of the lush mountains of nearby West Java — along with higher pollution levels.

“When we see the sky is blue, it’s just one indicator that air quality is good, and not really an accurate one,” said Dasrul Chaniago, director of pollution control and environmental damage at the environment and forestry ministry. The ministry estimates that at least 70 percent of Jakarta air pollution is from vehicles.The main peril to public health is from fine particle pollution — measuring 2.5 micrometers in diameter or smaller and found in, among other things, auto emissions — that can sneak into people’s nasal passages and lungs. Such pollution particles are significantly smaller than mold spores, pollens or typical atmospheric dust.

“Car emissions are better,” said Agnes J. Safford, who heads GreenWorks Asia, a Jakarta-based environmental consultancy. “But you’re getting more fine particles because there are more cars. So it looks clearer, but it’s not better.”

Jakarta has never been viewed as one of Asia’s most livable cities. Imagine Los Angeles on a bad day, but with more smog and bumper-to-bumper traffic.

While pollution here does not compare to the dire levels in cities like Beijing and New Delhi, it is serious enough for the State Department to have put Jakarta on a priority list of American Embassies to be fitted with air quality monitors this year. The American Embassies in Beijing and New Delhi already have the monitors; results posted online garner intense interest.

More Jakarta residents are suffering the physical effects of dirtier air, experts say. A study by the University of Indonesia Faculty of Public Health found that 58 percent of all illnesses among people living in the city were related to air pollution as of 2011, up from 35 percent a decade earlier. And the problem is thought to have gotten worse since the study was done..

The conditions include asthma, bronchitis, lung cancer and cardiovascular disease, said Dr. Budi Haryanto, chairman of the university’s Department of Environmental Health, which carried out the study

Dr. Budi said that nationwide, air pollution causes 2.8 million lost work days a year, along with 1.3 million absences at schools, 9,000 hospitalizations and at least 6,500 premature deaths. “And we can say there’s an increase in disease in all Indonesian cities. There’s an increase in pollutants everywhere.”

Jakarta accounts for around 40 percent of all auto sales in Indonesia; more than 480,000 new cars hit the capital’s streets in 2014 in addition to 1.4 million new motorcycles, according to the Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers.

“Indonesia lags more than five years behind its neighbors, including Thailand and China, in fuel quality standards,” said Michael Dunne, who runs an automotive consultancy firm based in Hong Kong and has worked extensively in Indonesia.

“Junk fuel in, junk exhaust out, no matter how good the engine might be,” he said.

Still, there are signs that the government is tackling the problem. For instance, it is mandating that the auto sector improve emission standards on new vehicles to meet European levels starting in 2017.

In Jakarta, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Council collects data from eight monitoring stations across the city to measure air quality minute by minute. The agency also deploys vans with air monitoring equipment to take measurements in specific locations.

Experts say it will take long-term projects to improve Jakarta’s air quality, like the continuing construction of a mass transit system that officials hope will reduce the number of drivers on the streets and highways. Another project involves the city government buying land to create more green spaces.

In the meantime, Jakartans who wear face masks are an increasingly common sight.

Fina Chrisnantari, 30, an assistant in an office management company, says she will continue to wear a mask to and from work. She has been wearing one for about a year. “I’m not sure how much it helps,” she said as she waited for a bus in downtown Jakarta. “A few days after being out, you can still feel it in your lungs.”