Jakarta facing air pollution fears

JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta's air quality, which has been getting poorer over the last few years due mainly to vehicular emission, will continue worsening if inhabitants fail to keep emissions at the lowest level, an official said yesterday.

Rafdjon Rax, head of the city laboratory for environment and urban affairs studies, said vehicular emission, especially from cars using leaded fuel, had a major impact on air quality.

"Lead, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, hydrocarbon, sulfur dioxide and particles constitute the primary air pollutants. They account for 90 percent of all pollutants in the air," he said.

The high consumption of leaded fuel here has resulted in an increase of lead concentrate in the air, he said.

State-owned oil and gas company Pertamina estimates that the country consumes about 52 million kiloliters of gasoline a year.

In emission tests conducted by the administration's environmental bureau in June, 62.1 percent of the 1,059 tested vehicles exceeded the tolerable level of pollutants.

Out of about 77.5 percent of the tested vehicles using leaded fuel, more than half of them failed the test.

According to a 1990 gubernatorial law, the tolerable level of pollutants for cars using gasoline is, among others, 4.5 microgram/cubic meter for carbon monoxide and 1,200 microgram/cubic meter for hydrocarbon.

Rafdjon said the presence of pollutants in the air was hazardous to human health as they could cause respiratory problems and affect the nervous system as well.

He said the total concentration and distribution of lead particles in Jakarta's air had almost hit the maximum tolerable level of 1 microgram/cubic meter per year set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

He said the range of the tolerable level for lead concentration in the air was between 0.5 and 1 microgram/cubic meter per year.

"More areas now have bad air quality as lead concentration has reached more than 0.7 microgram/cubic meter," he said.

The lead concentration level was 0.6 microgram/cubic meter in 1995, he said.

"In 1997, the worst air quality could be found in busy areas with heavy traffic like Blok M, Jl. Sudirman, Jl. Thamrin, Senayan, Gambir and downtown Kota," he said.

Rafdjon said the concentration of dust particles in the air had also exceeded the tolerable level set by WHO at 0.0900 microgram/cubic meter per year.

He said an annual study held for the last three years in 12 areas, including Senayan, Kramat Pela and Tebet Barat in South Jakarta; Ancol and Cilincing in North Jakarta; Duri Kosambi in West Jakarta; Gambir in Central Jakarta; and Penggilingan in East Jakarta, showed that the concentration rate of dust in each of the 12 areas reached at least 0.1000 microgram/cubic meter. (cst)