Current Air Quality

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The Philippines, and especially its capital Metro Manilla, is just subjected to Air Pollution just like any other countries in Asia.

Quoted from this overview from the 'Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources', the Philippines ranks 5th (out of 11 countries) at the Environmental Performance Index in the ASEAN Region (which includes Japan, China and South Korea). This other articles explains that "Pollution levels in Metro Manila are still higher than acceptable levels ...".


Visible Air Pollution on Manilla Skyline (attribution).
So, like most of the countries in Asia, there is no reason why there should not be real-time Air Quality monitoring in the Philippines, at least for Metro Manilla. The Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) (emb.gov.ph/portal/air) does provide a lot of useful information about the Air Quality. Unfortunately, the "Continuous Ambient Air Monitoring ... for PM₁₀" page (emb.gov.ph/ambientair) is not working (and has actually not been working for a while now). The best solution for providing real-time Air Quality information in Philippines would be that the EMB starts providing the official readings again. But while this is happening, the aqicn.org team is starting the "Philippines Air Quality monitoring project". Updated on June 18th 2015: Air Quality is now official available from airquality-embdenr.com.

The aqicn.org R&D team is now developping a new affordable Particule Matter (PM_2.5) outdoor Air Quality monitoring station, and we want to install a few of them in Metro Manilla (to start with). The station is simple to use, and requires almost no maintenance. It only requires a WIFI connection to operate (the power supply is provided by battery and solar panel).

So if you are living Metro Manilla, and you would like to help us, we are looking for people who can help us to host the stations. If this is you, the please fill in the form below with your contact information. Alternatively, if you are only interrested in getting the real-time data, or you would like to get more infomration about the project, you can also subscribe to our mailing list to get the updates about the project, using the same form below.

About the Air Quality Levels

AQI	Air Pollution Level	Health Implications	Cautionary Statement (for PM2.5)
0 - 50	Good	Air quality is considered satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk	None
51 -100	Moderate	Air quality is acceptable; however, for some pollutants there may be a moderate health concern for a very small number of people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution.	Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion.
101-150	Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups	Members of sensitive groups may experience health effects. The general public is not likely to be affected.	Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion.
151-200	Unhealthy	Everyone may begin to experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects	Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should avoid prolonged outdoor exertion; everyone else, especially children, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion
201-300	Very Unhealthy	Health warnings of emergency conditions. The entire population is more likely to be affected.	Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should avoid all outdoor exertion; everyone else, especially children, should limit outdoor exertion.
300+	Hazardous	Health alert: everyone may experience more serious health effects	Everyone should avoid all outdoor exertion

To know more about Air Quality and Pollution, check the wikipedia Air Quality topic or the airnow guide to Air Quality and Your Health.

For very useful health advices of Beijing Doctor Richard Saint Cyr MD, check www.myhealthbeijing.com blog.