{"id":10943,"date":"2021-09-23T13:54:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-23T05:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/?p=10943"},"modified":"2021-12-01T20:38:35","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T12:38:35","slug":"ph-urged-to-comply-with-new-who-air-quality-guidelines-as-manila-nearly-triples-safe-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/press\/10943\/ph-urged-to-comply-with-new-who-air-quality-guidelines-as-manila-nearly-triples-safe-limits\/","title":{"rendered":"PH urged to comply with new WHO air quality guidelines as Manila nearly triples \u2018safe\u2019 limits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Quezon City, Philippines, 24 September 2021<\/em> – Greenpeace Philippines urged the government to update the country\u2019s air quality standards following Tuesday\u2019s release of the World Health Organization\u2019s (WHO) new guidelines[1]. The group is calling on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to adopt the new limits and expedite the review of the country\u2019s air quality standards, which have largely remained the same since 1999. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe new WHO guidelines affirm that air pollution, even at low levels[2], has serious impacts on health,\u201d said Greenpeace Campaigner Khevin Yu. \u201cThe DENR can\u2019t continue sitting on outdated standards at a time when we need to be protecting people\u2019s health and saving lives. The work, however, does not stop at setting stricter limits. Putting in place and implementing policies to reduce pollutant emissions is key. In other words, the standards are meaningless without government action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

WHO has set more stringent limits on PM2.5 and PM10[3], ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide.  Notably, the prescribed new limits for PM2.5 is 5 \u00b5g\/m3 (micrograms per cubic meter) for the one year average level, and 15 \u00b5g\/m3 for the short term 24-hour average level. The DENR\u2019s acceptable values for PM2.5, updated in 2020, sets the limit for PM 25 at 25 \u00b5g\/m3 for the long term one year average level, and 35 \u00b5g\/m3 for the short term 24-hour average level[4].<\/p>\n\n

Analysis[5] of PM2.5 data aggregated by IQAir found that air quality failed to meet these new limits in all of the world\u2019s 100 biggest cities last year[6]. In 2020, Metro Manila recorded 13 \u00b5g\/m3, exceeding the new standards by nearly three fold. Greenpeace says that the data is a conservative estimate given the lack of adequate air pollution monitoring in the mega-city.<\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace says that the new standards present a clear case for the immediate phase out of fossil fuels. Air pollution from fossil fuels\u2014primarily coal, oil, and gas\u2014is attributed to cause an estimated 27,000 premature deaths per year in the Philippines, and can cost the country up to approximately 1.9% of GDP in economic losses annually according to a 2020 study[7].<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThis is a wake-up call for both the government and private companies that continued use of fossil fuels is harmful to human health,\u201d Yu said. \u201cA just transition to renewable energy does not only protect the climate, it also protects people,\u201d Yu said. \u201cThe current administration should accelerate the decommissioning of existing coal plants and the cancellation of remaining coal projects in the pipeline.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

Notes<\/h2>\n\n

[1] The WHO standards can be accessed at this link.
[2] Experts recognize that there is no safe level of air pollution exposure. Long-term exposure to low-levels of air pollution can cause a gradual but serious deterioration of our health, resulting in diseases like lung cancer, stroke, diabetes, and, ultimately, in avoidable deaths.
[3] PM is short for \u201cparticulate matter,\u201dmicroscopic particles that are small enough to travel deep into the lungs, even into the bloodstream. PM10 refers to particles smaller than 10 \u03bcm (micrometers), and PM2.5 to particles smaller than 2.5 \u03bcm.
[4] DENR DAO-2020-14-PM2.5.pdf
[5] See the Greenpeace briefing paper here.
[6] In 8 of the 100 cities, PM2.5 data for 2020 was unavailable due to a lack of government monitoring or disclosure.
[7] Toxic air: the price of fossil fuels<\/p>\n\n

Contact<\/h2>\n\n

Maverick Flores<\/strong>
Communications Campaigner
mflores@greenpeace.org
+63 917 621 1552<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n \t\t\t

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Renewable energy is the key to our country’s energy independence. But coal companies and politicians are holding us back. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t \n TAKE ACTION\n <\/a>\n \t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greenpeace Philippines urged the government to update the country\u2019s air quality standards following Tuesday\u2019s release of the World Health Organization\u2019s (WHO) new guidelines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":3773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7,17],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-10943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sustainability","tag-energy","tag-pollution","p4-page-type-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10943"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11136,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10943\/revisions\/11136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10943"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=10943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}