INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR AIR QUALITY

Dr Kanwaljit Soin asked the Minister for the Environment how many times in a year, from 1991 to 1993, have we breached international standards for air quality.

Mr Mah Bow Tan: We use the World Health Organisation Long Term Goals and the United States Environmental Protection Agency Primary Air Quality Standards to assess our air quality. Both the World Health Organisation and the United States Environmental Protection Agency have short-term (hourly, 8-hourly and 24-hourly) and long term (3-monthly and annual) air quality standards for individual air pollutants. From 1991 to 1993, the air pollution levels in Singapore have not exceeded any of these short-term or long term air quality standards.

However, with increasing fuel consumption, the amount of pollutants emitted into the air will inevitably increase. My Ministry is studying measures to ensure that the levels of these pollutants such as suspended particulates and sulphur dioxide will ontinue to remain within acceptable levels prescribed in international standards.