Uzbekistan to oblige cement plants to establish air pollution analysis stations

Uzbekistan’s State Committee for Ecology and Environmental Protection plans to oblige all existing cement enterprises to establish sampling and analysis stations for sources of air pollution, as follows from the draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers, Trend reports citing Uzbekistan’s National Legislation Base-Lex.uz portal.

“To oblige all cement enterprises operating in Uzbekistan to establish automatic stations for sampling and analysis of samples at sources of atmospheric air pollution, as well as stationary observation points in the adjacent territory at the expense of the economic entities by January 1, 2022,” the document says.

If this requirement is not met, measures will be applied to the plants, up to the suspension of their activities.

In addition, the document proposes to mandatory include all cement enterprises in the list of economic entities subject to monitoring of pollution sources from January 1, 2020.

The AirVisual international organization, which is engaged in monitoring air quality, put Uzbekistan in 16th place in the ranking of countries with the most polluted air in 2018.

According to AirVisual criteria, the concentration of impurities in the air in Uzbekistan is acceptable, but people sensitive to pollution should protect their health.

Since 2006, air pollution index (API) indicators in Tashkent have fluctuated at a level of 3.32-4.96 points. For the first quarter of 2019, the maximum permissible concentration (MPC) for nitrogen dioxide in the capital was 0.8 (0.97 for the same period in 2018), sulfur dioxide - 0 (0.6), ammonia - 3.0 (2.3), nitric oxide - 0.2 (0.29), dust - 0.7 (0.96), carbon monoxide - 0.7 (0.65), hydrogen fluoride - 0.6 (0.58), formaldehyde - 0.016 (0.024).

The level of urban air pollution is measured by the air pollution index (API). If API values ??are less than 5 points it corresponds to a reduced level of pollution. API is calculated by comparing the observed concentrations of pollutants with the maximum permissible concentrations (MPC) set for them, values ??above 1.0 are potentially hazardous to public health.

According to Uzhydromet’s measurements, over the past 10 years Tashkent has been characterized by background dust pollution, which exceeds the daily average MPC by 1.3–2.7 times, nitrogen dioxide by 1.3–2 times. Exceeding the maximum permissible concentration during the year in 10.4–42.7 percent of cases is recorded in a hot, dry, windless summer-autumn period.