Cement plants need to monitor ambient air quality

The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has released the revised National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) 2009. As per these norms, both residential and industrial areas will have the same standards. The new standards include limits for benzene, ozone, benzo(a) pyrene, arsenic, nickel and ammonia, which were not covered in earlier standards notified in 1994. The cement plants in India are required to monitor ambient air quality and stack emissions on their premises. The exact location of ambient air quality monitoring stations and the sampling ports in the stacks shall be decided by the concerned cement plants in consultation with the respective SPCB. Cement plants shall have sampling ports built into the stack. The environmental parameters to be regularly monitored at cement plants are particulate matter (PM10/PM2.5), sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide in ambient air and particulate matter, SO2 and NOX emissions in the kiln stack.