LPG most polluting? Experts disagree

A government claim that the source of the Capital’s deadliest pollutant Particulate Matter 2.5 is liquid petroleum gas (LPG) in homes and not vehicles has miffed experts who term it as an attempt to give the transport sector a clean chit for air pollution.

Updated on: Sep 20, 2010, 02:56:00 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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A government claim that the source of the Capital’s deadliest pollutant Particulate Matter 2.5 is liquid petroleum gas (LPG) in homes and not vehicles has miffed experts who term it as an attempt to give the transport sector a clean chit for air pollution.

PM 2.5, the smallest pollutant absorbed mostly by the human body, can trigger heart attacks and respiratory diseases.
Rise in number of vehicles was believed to be the major source of the pollutant.

This claim was countered by Indian Oil Corporation this week when it quoted a Central Pollution Control Board study saying LPG was the major contributor to rising PM 2.5 in the Capital.

An IOC presentation at a seminar organised by diesel vehicle manufacturers said that half of PM 2.5 in residential areas of Delhi was because of combustion of domestic LPG. In industrial areas, it was as high as 61 per cent and at traffic junctions 40.5 per cent.

“It is not a complete view,” said CPCB chairperson S.P. Gautam. The board for the first time in India conducted an air pollution source appropriation study which was peer reviewed by air pollution experts from Europe and the US and is being examined by an inter-ministerial group. “I don’t know what IOC had said but there are many factors which contribute to particulate matter.”

The most intriguing findings were for residential areas in Delhi where vehicles contribute 22.4 per cent and kerosene combustion 17.4 per cent to total PM 2.5 pollution.

The presentation states vehicles contribute only seven per cent to particulate matter at traffic intersections and garbage burning for 14 per cent.

“It is shocking,” said Anumita Roy Chowdhury, Associate Director with NGO Centre for Science and Environment. “Refinery and auto industries have hyped data in public forums to prove vehicles are the cleanest and must be left alone.”

The CPCB study, which Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has decided not to put in public domain, is likely to be the basis for India’s future auto fuel policy. The government has constituted an inter-ministerial group to review the present policy, which expires in 2010, and create one for the new decade.

Environment ministry officials said the aim of the new policy would be to reduce the sources of air pollution.
Chowdhury said the government was framing a new policy without consulting people.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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