The China Post
Date: January 8, 2017
By: CNA
TAIPEI — Most of western Taiwan faced poor air quality on Friday as a stagnant frontal system
A smoggy cityscape of Taichung City as seen on Thursday, Jan. 5. Poor air quality along Taiwan’s western half in recent days have prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to urge residents to don surgical masks before leaving the house. (CNA)
prevented pollutants from dispersing, an environmental protection official has said.
The air quality index for areas in western Taiwan ranged between 100 and 200 on the 0-500 scale adopted by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) for its air quality monitoring network.
Under the EPA monitoring system, indexes with readings between 101 and 150 suggest that the air quality is unhealthy for people more vulnerable to airborne pollutants while scores between 151 and 200 indicate the air quality is unhealthy for everybody.
As of 1 p.m., the worst air quality was found in the Changhua, Yunlin, Chiayi and Tainan areas, which all had monitoring stations where the air quality index exceeded 150. [FULL STORY]
