Burning Tyres During Protests Adding to the Air Pollution in Twin Cities: Pak-EPA

Islamabad: The burning of tyres during the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf workers’ rallies is worsening the air quality in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, which is clogging up roads and interchanges throughout both cities.

On November 4 (Friday), the PTI workers staged nationwide demonstrations after Imran Khan, the party’s chairman, was shot in the leg while leading his long march to the federal capital close to Wazirabad city in the Punjab province.

The party workers had blocked routes and set tyres at fire near Shamsabad on Murree Road, Peshawar Road, whereas diversions were placed for both sides of traffic at MargallahPahari point of GT Road and traffic coming from Taxila via GT Road to Rawalpindi. Moreover, alternatively, traffic was diverted to Srinagar Highway from Chungi No. 26 due to the protesters choking the thoroughfares.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claims that the effects of fires caused by burning fires are extremely harmful to human health, harmful to the environment, and challenging to control. Also these fires risk air, soil and water pollution.

“However when a tyre fire happens, tyres decompose into dangerous substances including fumes, heavy metals, and oil. When burned, an average passenger automobile tyre is estimated to produce more than two gallons of oil,” according to the US EPA’s website. The oil released by tyres during burning is a significant environmental pollutant and a highly combustible material since it is discharged directly into ground and surface water while burning.

According to the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency’s (Pak-EPA) daily air quality report, the ratio of air pollutants measured was below permissible limits, and the air quality was good because the previous day’s rainfall and cloudy weather had reduced the amount of pollutants in the air. The air quality data has been collected by Pak-EPA that monitors air pollutants ratio for 24 hours based on three intervals of eight hours data collection from different locations.

The Pak-EPA data revealed that the air quality throughout the three intervals of data monitoring remained low as the ratio of pollutants was below the permissible limits of national environmental quality standards (NEQS).

The hazardous air pollutant particulate matter of 2.5 microns (PM2.5), which was a lethal atmospheric contaminant, remained 33.7 microgrammes per cubic meter on average which is lower than the NEQS of 35 microgrammes per cubic meter and denotes the air quality healthy.

The PM 2.5 is generated by combustion engines, industrial emissions, burning garbage, inflammable material, and dust blown up by fasting moving cars on non-cemented patches of the roads.

Additionally, the regular forest fires in the capital increased the amount of suspended particles, dust and particulate matter in the air.

The nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulphur dioxide (SO2) were recorded below permissible ratio as it were recorded 4.17 and 21.23 micro-grammes per cubic meter in past 24 hours in the atmosphere against the NEQS of 80 and 120 micro-grammes per cubic meter respectively.

These effluents are +mainly produced during the operational activities of industrial plants and factories that arealready under control.

The EPA official urged the public with respiratory diseases and other critical heart or lungs diseases to avoid prolonged outdoor visits and wear face coverings and goggles when the air quality is unhealthy while venturing outdoors. APP