‘Mumbai sees cleaner air during lockdown’

MUMBAI: An analysis of data from the monitoring stations of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), done by Urbanemissions.info, found that the levels of five out of six pollutants in the city’s air were lower in the past two months, as compared to pre-lockdown levels.

Urbanemissions.info, a collective of environment researchers, studied the concentration of particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3), and carbon monoxide (CO) over the 54 days of lockdown, divided into three phases. The first phase of the lockdown was from March 25 to April 14; the second, from April 15 to May 3; and the third, from May 4 to May 17.

The pollutant data was accessed through openaq.org, an open source website. Levels were compared with a 30-day average (February 20 to March 22) during the pre-lockdown period. While levels for most pollutants dipped, SO2 saw a spike during lockdown.