The U.S. Embassy in Dushanbe recently installed an air quality monitor to measure particulates as an indication of the air quality on the Embassy compound located in the Zarafshon district.

Pollutants such as particle pollution are linked to a number of significant health effects — and those effects are likely to be more severe for sensitive populations, including people with heart or lung disease, children, and older adults.  Real-time publication of air quality data will be available for use by scientists and researchers, the government, and the Tajik public at airnow.gov.

The monitor measures the amount of particulates less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter (PM 2.5), which are referred to as “fine” particulates and are believed to pose the largest health risks since they can enter the blood stream through the lungs.  PM 2.5 is a standard recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and allows us to compare against U.S. standard measures.  For more information, please visit the EPA site: https://bit.ly/1U9qR5q

The U.S. EPA has developed a formula to convert PM 2.5 readings into an air quality index (AQI) value that can help inform health-related decisions.  For example, an AQI value of 50 represents good air quality with little potential to affect public health, while an AQI value over 300 represents hazardous air quality. For more information on AQI and how it is calculated, please click here: https://bit.ly/1U9qR5q

Factsheet on Air Quality Control (MS PowerPoint 1 MB)

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