Air quality index device installed in Peshawar

Device tracks 10 serious air pollution parametres

PESHAWAR: With the smog situation in parts of the country worsening, an indigenously-developed device to monitor the air quality in the city has been installed.

The Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) device, developed by the Directorate of Science and Technology (DoST) three experts from Khushal Khan Khattak University Karak, has been installed in the National Institute of Management Sciences (NIMS) Peshawar.

The device has been designed to understand the impact of air quality on health and used to make decisions to reduce short-term exposure to air pollution by adjusting activity levels during increased levels of air pollution.

It collects various elements in the air such as dust particles (PM 10, PM 2.5), surface-level gases (Ozone, nitrogen dioxide, carbon dioxide, ammonia and carbon monoxide) along with temperature, humidity and heat index.

The team said that Canada was the first to adopt AQHI in 2005, which calculates a single, combined number with three inputs such as dust particles, ozone and nitrogen, resulting in an entire picture of air quality having both gases and dust particles. Hong Kong adopted AQHI by adding two more inputs including 10-micron dust particles and Sulphide gases.

Team members Dr Zubair and Dr Khalid Khan remarked that the device developed locally can assess 10 serious air pollution parameters.

The added that so far, they have installed eight gadgets stations at various major spots in Peshawar which are connected to a cloud server in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Data Center for the collection of environmental data.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 23^rd, 2019.