Providing the Foundation for Clean Air in Asia

The six-module course was developed by Stockholm Environment Institute with contributions from a global team of air pollution experts, and is funded by the EU Asia Urbs programme with additional support from a number of international organisations.

Half million deaths each year
Air pollution has become part of the daily existence of many people, who work, live and use the streets in Asian cities. It affects the health, well-being and life chances of hundreds of million men, women and children in every day. The World Health Organisation estimates that outdoor air pollution is responsible for 537,000 premature deaths each year.

The poor and socially marginalised often suffer disproportionately from the effects of deteriorating air quality due to living near sources of pollution in Asian cities.

Senior Research Associate and co-editor of the course, Dr Gary Haq, said:

- Every day millions of people in Asian cities breathe air polluted with concentrations of chemicals, smoke and particles that dramatically exceed World Health Organisation guidelines. The course will raise awareness of tools, measures and options available to manage and achieve better air quality in Asia.

Capacity building course
The foundation course is aimed at increasing capacity of local authorities, government agencies, academic organisations and non-governmental organisations to address the problem of deteriorating air quality.

The course is available for free at http://www.sei.se/cleanair/ and on CD-Rom.

For media information, contact Dr Gary Haq: +44 (0) 1904 432917

Notes for editors
• Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) is an international, independent environment and development research institute. Its York centre is based in the Department of Biology at the University of York.
• Dr Gary Haq and Dr Dieter Schwela are co-editors of the six module foundation course and authors of the book “Urban Air Pollution in Asian Cities” which provided the first assessment of air quality management in 20 Asia cities and was published by Earthscan in 2006.
• The foundation course was funded by the European Union’s Asia Urbs Programme with additional funding from Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), World Health Organization, Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), and Force Technology.
• An estimated 11 megacities, with a population of more than 10 million people, currently exist in the Asia region (Beijing, Delhi, Dhaka, Jakarta, Karachi, Kolkata, Metro Manila, Mumbai, Osaka-Kobe, Shanghai and Tokyo).
• Main causes of urban air pollution are the use of fossil fuel (coal, oil and gas) in transport, power generation, industry and domestic sectors.
• Traffic is an increasing contributor to air pollution in many Asian cities. Uncontrolled motor vehicles, particularly those with diesel and two-stroke engines are the most important sources of fine particular matter, which are particularly damaging to human health.
• The aim of air quality management is to maintain the quality of the air that protects human health and welfare, but also to provide protection for animals, plants (crops, forests and vegetation), ecosystems and material aesthetics, such as natural levels of visibility. In order to achieve this goal, appropriate policies, and strategies to prevent and control air pollution need to be developed and implemented.