Pakistan’s first ever project to measure mercury pollution in the air was launched on Wednesday in the federal capital.
The collaborative project, initiated by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and Zero Mercury Working Group (ZMWG), was an attempt to identify and monitor ‘Mercury emission and release sites’ in various cities of Pakistan and assess their air quality to protect environmental and human health. As a part of the commencement of activities, teams of SDPI monitors had been trained on Lumex Mercury Analyzer and other specialised field instruments to accurately collect and note measurements.
The project was formally launched by SDPI’s Executive Director Dr Abid Qayyum Suleri and Deputy Executive Director Dr Waqar Ahmad.
The main feature of the launch was a demo measurement of mercury pollution at SDPI office which the team selected as their first sampling site in Pakistan.
The team took indoor and outdoor air samples along with other climatic parameters such as temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction.
The results showed mercury level to be between 10.44 – 10.89 (n=9) nano gram per cubic meter of the air. These levels were considered safe, and are far below than the permissible limit (2000 ng/M3) for safe occupational health and safety.
SDPI monitoring team was now going to visit Lahore for further monitoring at different sampling sites, including dental clinics and light products manufacturing industry. The Lahore visit would be followed up by similar visits to sites in Peshawar, Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
The project had garnered widespread support across the country and the Ministry of Disaster Management, Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak – EPA), Institute of Chemical Sciences and Peshawar University Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had already extended their support for the study. Mercury (Hg), known as ‘quick silver’ poses serious risks not only to environment but also to human health.
Earlier this month, 140 countries in Geneva adopted the world’s first legally binding treaty on mercury, limiting the use and emission of health-hazardous mercury.
Mercury sources are quite diverse, ranging from thermometers, electric bulbs, and switches to power plants, coal fired power stations, metal smelters, gold mining and cement industry. It is also employed in some cosmetics like facial creams and dental treatments like mercury amalgam filling. A persistent pollutant, mercury is not limited to its source but it travels and is sometimes found thousands of kilometers away from the source.
