A day after smog covered Metro Manila, most areas in the metropolis recorded “good” air quality on Saturday, Sept. 23, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ (DENR’s)- Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) said.
EMB’s PM 2.5 monitoring stations reported that the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Makati, Parañaque, and Pateros are “good.” Meanwhile, the AQI in Caloocan had an AQI of 72, which is classified as “fair.”
PM 2.5 measures finer particles (2.5 micrometers and below) such as black carbon particulates from vehicle transportation.
On the other hand, PM 10 stations observed that the AQI in Caloocan, Makati, Parañaque, Pateros, and Taguig were “good.”
Mandaluyong and San Juan measured an AQI of 75 and 61 respectively, the agency added.
PM 10 measures slightly larger particles such as dust.
It is worth noting that the air quality in other Metro Manila areas were not recorded since they were either offline or did not have a monitoring system.
The DENR has recently clarified that the smog observed in Metro Manila was due to emissions from vehicles and thermal inversion, not from the volcanic smog (vog) observed at Taal Volcano in Batangas.