Air quality being monitored

Efforts are being made to monitor the air quality in Barbados following the recent eruption of the La Soufrière volcano in St. Vincent.

Director of the Environmental Protection Department (EPD), Anthony Headley revealed the above in a recent virtual press conference.

“Currently, the EPD has an air quality monitoring station located at the CIMH, the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology. We’ve observed over the last month at least an increase in dust levels. We currently monitor, as I have indicated,  the dust at that location and since April 6th, we have seen a 66 per cent increase in dust levels and that is associated with the current haze that we are seeing,” the EPD’s Director explained.

“We are going to be putting another station into operation and this will assist us in terms of understanding the levels of dust, if there is dust fall from this particularly eruption. We will also be putting in place as a result of the eruption and I am hoping to work with Dr. Kenneth George (Chief Medical Officer) on that, to notify persons if the levels of dust increase beyond the WHO (World Health Organisation) standards, for dust in our current environment,” Headley added.

“These monitoring stations would allow us to monitor the dust levels in terms of concentration of air against the WHO standards, which will allow us to put preventative measures in place, as well as particularly a warning system to inform persons when the air quality has deteriorated below WHO standards,” Mr. Headley remarked.

(RSM)