American embassies stop monitoring air quality abroad

What is the air quality in Novel Delhi, Jakarta or Buenos Aires? Until Tuesday, the United States embassy in these cities could tell you.

But the Trump administration effectively closed the global air quality monitoring program, ending over a decade of public data collection and reporting 80 embassies and consulates around the world.

This information supported the research, helped thousands of foreign officers working abroad in decide whether it is sheltered to allow their children to play outdoors, and directly led to an improvement in air quality in countries such as China.

The State Department told We -Mail that the program was suspended “due to budget restrictions”.

Health officials and environmental experts said that the end of air quality monitoring will hurt Americans abroad, especially those who work for the US government.

“The embassies are sometimes in very challenging circumstances in the quality of air,” said Gina McCarthy, who managed the Environmental Protection Agency in Obama’s administration.

She, together with John Kerry, who was then the Secretary of State, expanded around the world, which was constrained but transforming air monitoring in China.

“You can’t send people in risky areas without information,” said McCarthy. “Basically, we consider risky areas as war zones or something. But it is equally essential to look at whether their health is getting worse because they are in a place with such low air quality. “

In 2008, United States officials in Beijing installed air quality monitors on the roof of the American embassy and eventually began to publish data every hour with the levels of one of the most risky types of air pollution, compact solid particles known as PM 2.5. The particles can enter the lungs and bloodstream and were associated with breathing problems, heart attacks and other grave health effects.

The information revealed what local residents already knew: that pollution was much worse than the Chinese government.

“Hell has started,” McCarthy remembered. The Chinese government unsuccessfully tried to put pressure on the American Embassy to stop making the data, calling illegal readings and attacking the quality of science, she and others said.

Ultimately, Chinese officials gave way. They introduced their own monitoring system, increased the budget for pollution control and eventually began to cooperate with the United States in air quality projects.

In 2015, Mrs. McCarthy and Mr. Kerry announced that they would expand air monitoring in American diplomatic missions, arguing that air pollution, like climate change, required global data and solutions.

Study 2022 Published at the Processings of National Academy of Sciences It was found that when American embassies began to follow local air pollution, the host countries took action. The study showed that since 2008 there has been a significant reduction in levels of compact particles in cities with a US monitor, which reduced the risk of premature death for over 300 million people.

Dan Westervelt, a research professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth observatory at Columbia, said that many countries did not have public air quality monitoring and that the data from the embassies provided researchers with reliable information.

Dr. Westervelt said that he worked on the project via the State Department, using air quality data from embassies in five West African countries, but received an order for stopping when President Trump took office in January.

“In my opinion, it exposes the health of foreign officers,” he said. “But they also hinder potential research and politics.”

The data appeared on AirnowThe website managed by both EPA and the State Department, as well as on Zephair, a mobile application run by the State Department. On Tuesday, the website was offline and no data was displayed.

The Department of State said that aviation monitors in the embassies will continue to operate for an indefinite time, but do not send live data to the application or other platforms “if/until the financing of the basic network”.

According to the internal e -new “Novel York Times” of embassies and other posts would be able to regain historical data by the end of the month.