Groups urge probe into Metro Manila air quality after landfill fire

MANILA, Philippines – Environmental groups on Monday called for an expanded investigation into the air quality in Metro Manila, noting that the fire at the Navotas sanitary landfill continues to produce toxic smoke, posing serious health risks.

In a statement, the Ateneo Center for Research and Innovation (ACRI) and Breathe Metro Manila said the air quality in several cities, including those that were far from the incident, has not recovered since the fire at the Navotas sanitary landfill broke out on April 10.

The groups, which have been monitoring the air quality in Metro Manila through a network of over 90 sensors, noted that the worst readings were recorded not during the fire, but just this week.

It pointed out that the northern portion of Metro Manila bore the heaviest burden, with the cities of Caloocan and Valenzuela spending 85 percent of the seven-day monitoring period in elevated air quality index categories.

READ: PhilSA: Smoke from Navotas landfill fire reached as far as Bataan

Moreover, data from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources showed unhealthy air quality in Caloocan, Malabon, Mandaluyong, Navotas, Quezon City (at Ateneo de Manila University) and San Juan as of 3 p.m. on Monday.

Very unhealthy air quality was recorded in SMPH Commonwealth in Quezon City, while acutely unhealthy air quality was recorded in Marikina and Valenzuela.

ACRI and Breathe Metro Manila stressed that the cause of the renewed deterioration in air quality requires urgent and further investigation.

“The situation is serious, it is not yet resolved, and it is not confined to Navotas. The communities that need protection most are those who have been breathing this air the longest, and who had the fewest choices about doing so,” Geminn Louis Apostol, program head for environmental health at ACRI, said in the statement.

READ: DOH: Haze from Navotas landfill fire may pose health risks to NCR

Apostol noted that aside from PM2.5, which are fine inhalable particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or smaller, the landfill fire produces a “far more complex toxic mixture” of pollutants that may include carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and possibly dioxins and furans due to the burning of plastics.

Dioxins and furans is the short name for a family of toxic substances. It is the by-product of various industrial processes, such as chemical manufacturing and waste incineration, or natural phenomena like forest fires.

“These are not captured by our sensors, and their presence cannot be ruled out,” Apostol said.

In the same statement, toxics watchdog EcoWaste Coalition also urged authorities to check for any leachate discharge, or contaminated liquids that can migrate through the underlying soil and groundwater, which may adversely affect the marine environment, as well as the people’s livelihood and food supply.

“At the same time, we urge the authorities to identify and hold parties in both the public and private sectors accountable for this toxic threat to human health,” said Aileen Lucero, national coordinator of EcoWaste.

“We further call on them to make the process participative and transparent. Local government units, grassroots organizations, and advocates for health and the environment must be adequately represented,” she added. /jpv