The new Rajarbag mobile air quality monitoring station set up in late October has already started delivering reports and the findings are unsettling.

According to November's report the highest presence of PM 10 the largest respirable suspended particulate matter, over a 24-hour period was recorded on November 2 and it stood at 192 micrograms per cubic meter, which is significantly higher than current Air Quality standards set atl50ug/m

The actual high may be greater as reports are produced only once a week and half of these have been marked invalid in the past because of power outages at the station.

Air quality in the city is at its worst in winter when precipitation is at its lowest. Among the pollutants PM 10 is especially high. Also known as 'black carbon smoke’, exposure of PM 10 can lead to respiratory morbidity, impaired lung function and cancer. Its primary source is emissions from diesel-run vehicles.

Reports from the environmental organisation The Clean Air Initiative confirm that the main air quality-related problem in Dhaka is particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5). In this category, the main polluters are believed to be commercial and private vehicles.

Measuring ambient air quality in the city is thus only half of the two-part plan of the Air Quality

Management Project under the Department of Environment, funded by the World Bank and the Government of Bangladesh. The second part involves creating and enforcing revised vehicle emissions standards.

Unlike vehicle emissions standards, ambient air quality cannot be enforced. The data from the stations will instead be used to inform policy measures concerning air pollution and to generate awareness.

The station built at the Rajarbag police Une is the first among four mobile air quality monitoring stations that will be established throughout the city and its surrounding areas. It is the first station to produce reports after the only permanent air quality station was built at the National Parliament compound in April 2002.

The second new station was established at BITAC in Tejgaon late last month and two are yet to be completed at Tongi Industrial

Area and Narayanganj. All are expected to be up and running in January.

All four of the new stations are mobile or satellite stations and therefore are capable of shifting locations. According to S.M. Abdul Quadir, Project Director of AQMR the satellite stations are more economically viable than the permanent monitoring stations, which can cost up to Tk two crore when all factors are taken into consideration.