With increase in population and enormous development of industry and commerce in Taichung City, air pollution caused by catering, religious activities, and agricultural waste burning as well as IAQ (indoor air quality) control have become a major public concern.
This project includes inspections of catering industry cooking emission control, promoting concentrated burning and source reduction of joss paper, inspections of open field burning of agricultural residues and inspections of IAQ control.
In the aspect of “catering industry cooking emission control”, we enhanced the inspections of air pollution control equipment in catering industries which had most complaint rates, conducted joint investigations with relevant government departments, successfully impelled vendors to install or to improve air pollution control equipment. For large-scale catering industries, we conducted on-site measurements and invited scholars to make suggestions. Together with Health Bureau of Taichung City Government and catering industrial union, we held advocacy meetings to raise vendors’ awareness of air pollution control. Physiological functional tests of borderline odor were conducted for catering industries with risk of air pollution to improve oil fume emission problems.
In the aspect of “promoting concentrated burning and source reduction of joss paper”, we held incinerator cleaning ceremonies during Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Festival and Ghost Festival to eliminate the concept of being disrespectful for sending joss paper into incinerator. With convenience stores’ Famiport service, we promoted “merit substitutes for joss paper”. By using Famiport service, citizen can make a donation to charity instead of burning joss paper. We conducted a survey of temples in Taichung City and invited eco-friendly temples along with Civil Affairs Bureau of Taichung City Government to share effective air quality management and environmental strategies with temple hosts in advocacy meetings.
In the aspect of “open field burning of agricultural residues control”, we created an online hotspot map of open field burning by collecting annual hotspots data as a reference for relevant government departments. During the harvest seasons of first and second cultivations, we dissuaded farmers from burning agricultural waste through publicity and notified them of measures and regulations of reuse of agricultural residues which were enacted by relevant agriculture departments. UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) were set out to patrol agricultural area in Taichung City as a mean to reduce air pollution problems caused by burning straws.
In the aspect of “IAQ (indoor air quality) control”, we conducted inspections of IAQ management of major public places in Taichung City. For public places that had assigned exclusive personnel and had established IAQ maintenance systems, we inspected the implementation their plan of IAQ management and built a database for organizing and analyzing. For public places that needed IAQ counseling, experts in IAQ management were invited to conduct on-site inspections and offer advice.
In conclusion, the results at present stage show the reductions of air pollutants: 467.54 tons of PM10, 50.87 tons of NOX, 231.51 tons of PM2.5, 23.09 tons of NMHC and 10.03 tons of SOX. Still, we will continue to improve air quality of Taichung City and contribute our future work to maintaining citizen’s living environment.
