CHENNAI: The poor air quality in Chennai over the last few days was due to multiple factors including low moisture in sea breeze and reduction in cloud cover, said Revenue and Disaster Management Department minister R Udayakumar on Monday. This was the first official confirmation on the unprecedented drop of air quality in the city since November 4.
“Of the 8 air quality monitoring stations in the city, only in two stations AQI recorded between 202 and 300 (which was catergorised as poor) and an expert committee has been constitued to find the cause,”
he said.
The minister attributed the air pollution to dust emitted from road, building construction works, garbage burning and smoke from old vehicles. “The air quality will improve in coming days as the met department has announced that monsoon will start in another few days,” Udayakumar said.
Allying the fears over health complaints due to low air quality, Udayakumar claimed that the health department so far have not received any respiratory complainants and the situation being monitored by Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, Disaster Management and health department round the clock, he said.
Reiterating that air quality in Chennai continue to remain good, the minister urged people to ignore rumours spread through social media.
J Radhakrishnan, Commissioner Revenue Administration, Disaster Management and Mitigation said low air quality recorded in garbage dumping sites Kodungaiyur and Perungudi and industrial areas Alandur, Manali. “About 15 percent of pollution was caused by smoke emitted from vehicles and 30 percent was because of dust and garbage burning. The local bodies and transport department also asked to take required measures to control it," Radhakrishnan said.