The air pollution in the Turkish metropolitan city of Istanbul fell around 30% after stay-at-home calls amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to the city’s municipality on Wednesday.
“THE LEVEL OF AIRBORNE PARTICULATE MATTER DROPPED BELOW 50”
In a statement, the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality said the number of vehicles on the traffic dropped as a result of the measures against the spread of coronavirus in the city, including a four-day curfew last week.
The statement also cited Bahar Tuncel, an environmental engineer for the municipality, who highlighted the impact of the fall in the number of vehicles on traffic in air quality, saying: “The limit value should be annually 40 micrograms/cubic meters in terms of particulate matter.”
“Before the pandemic, the particulate matter contaminants were at a level of 45-55 micrograms/cubic meters throughout Istanbul,” she added.
During the period of virus measures, the level of airborne particulate matter dropped below 50, she stressed, adding it even went down to levels of 30 micrograms/cubic meters this week.