Pollution control board bins Swiss firm’s air quality report

The Punjab Pollution Control Board on Thursday rejected the air quality study by a Swiss technology company that had declared state’s Mullanpur among the 20 most polluted cities of the world.

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The World Air Quality Report-2024 was released by IQAir on Tuesday. It, however, did not clarify to which Mullanpur it was referring to.

Karunesh Garg, a Chief Engineer with the PPCB, said it could be any Mullanpur. He said it couldn’t be Ludhiana’s Mullanpur Dakha as the area did not have any industry that could contribute to such alarming pollution levels.

Mullanpur Dakha is located about 30 kilometres away from the state’s industrial centre — Ludhiana. Another Mullanpur is locate near the state capital, where New Chandigarh is being developed.

‘Will go into depth of claim’

The officer said they were not aware on what basis the company conducted the survey as the board had no such data indicating such alarming pollution levels.

“Only the Swiss company will be able to answer on what basis they have made the claim,” said Garg, adding that they would go into the depth of the claim.

The report had bracketed Mullanpur with 12 other Indian cities in the most polluted group of places.

According to the report, the concentration of hazardous particulate matter in the air was at least 10 times the safe limit prescribed by the World Health Organization (WHO) during the period of the study.

The main contributor to the pollution is particulate matter 2.5 — also called as PM2.5. These are tiny droplets measuring 2.5 micrometres or less that can be inhaled, leading to respiratory problems. Vehicular and industrial emission are the main contributors of it.