EMB-7: Talisay and Naga have good quality outdoor air

THE Environmental Management Bureau in Central Visayas (EMB-7) is set to declare the cities of Talisay and Naga as an “attainment area” in Metro Cebu, due to the good quality of the cities’ ambient air.

Engr. Arthur Niño Calupig of EMB-7’s Ambient Quality Monitoring section said that based on their monitoring, the air quality in Talisay City and Naga City has remained at a good and fair level for the past three years.

“When we say ambient, that’s the general condition of outdoor air,” he explained.

“Everything is already emitted such as industrial sources, mobile sources, and localized sources. So ambient air is the air that humans breathe which was monitored in the Ambient Quality Monitoring Section,” added Calupig.

Calupig said that they are currently coordinating with the EMB main office in Manila to determine the other requirements needed by the two cities to earn the declaration.

Calupig clarified while EMB-7 only considers Talisay City and Naga City for the attainment area declaration, the air quality in the Metro Cebu Air Shed has actually remained at a safe and fair level on the average.

The Metro Cebu Air Shed is composed of five cities and five municipalities from Compostela town in northern Cebu to Naga City in the south, including Mactan Island.

“Though there are days during our sampling that there are spikes in the safety level, but that also depends on the activity in a certain area,” he added.

The safe level of Particulate Matter (PM) 10 pollutants is pegged at 150 micrograms per cubic meter.

According to Calupig, during the summer months, the air quality in some areas of Metro Cebu would reach up to 170 micrograms per cubic meter which can be harmful to people with existing health problems such as asthma.

EMB-7 plans to expand their areas of monitoring, but remained dependent on reports from other local government units (LGUs) on their air quality.

Calupig said that EMB-7 has seven pieces of equipment that measure pollutants in the air which were installed in different parts of Metro Cebu.

Each equipment costs between P3- P10 million.

Three of the equipment produced real time results while the others were manually operated.

Calupig said vehicles are the biggest contributor of pollutants in the air.

“We are appealing to the public to maybe just walk if they are going somewhere, especially if it’s just near and avoid using their vehicles,” he said.