Air Quality Index
Why in news :
- The national Capital’s air quality deteriorated to the “severe” category.
- The air quality Index reached 410 from 353 on previous day.
- The CPCB bulletin also said that a “severe” category of air pollution “affects healthy people” and “seriously impacts those with existing diseases”.
Reasons for such poor air quality Index :
- Apart from regular reasons, experts attributed the increase in the city’s AQI to meteorological factors.
- There is radiative fog due to colder temperatures and higher relative humidity.
- This tends to increase the pollution level as particles are suspended with water molecules in the atmosphere.
Air quality Index :
- An air quality index(AQI) is used by government agencies to communicate to the public how polluted the air currently is or how polluted it is forecast to become.
- It is launched under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, in 2014 to measure the India’s air quality index.
Categories of Air Quality Index :
- The National Air Quality Index has set up six AQI categories which are Good, Satisfactory, Moderately polluted, Poor, Very Poor, and Severe.
- It takes into 8 types of pollutants to compute the index. They are : PM2.5, PM 10, NO2, 03, CO, SO2, NH3 and Pb.
- Each category specifies health impacts associated with it. They are :
Syllabus : Prelims + Mains; GS3 – Environment; issues related to pollution
