Soon, you’ll know UV, air pollution, health index

Puneites will soon be able to know the air they breathe, including the effects of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, literally.

System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology’s (IITM) successful project, has been launched in the city with an added feature of the effects of UV radiation on human-beings.

SAFAR that had a successful run during the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in 2010 is expected to be implemented in the city by November 2012.

Speaking to DNA, the project director Gufran Beig said, “In Pune, we will display UV index and daily erythemal dose i.e. the levels of UV in air. We will also have the UV data to understand photochemistry for better predictability of air quality, a day in advance.”

Elaborating on the exercise, he said that nearly 100 students from Fergusson College and 30 students from the Department of Environmental Science of University of Pune will measure the air quality at various chowks per vehicle.

The student will press a button of the analyser when a bus, autorickshaw or any other vehicle passes by.

“This way we will also come to know about the number of vehicles passing through the chowk per minute, besides the pollution level,” he said.