The National Green Tribunal has asked the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to expedite the framing of guidelines to include microplastic contamination as one of the criteria to be fixed under the National Ambient Air Quality standards.
In an order dated August 20, the Southern Bench comprising Pushpa Sathyanarayana, Judicial Member, and Satyagopal Korlapati, Expert member asked the central board to “expedite the process of framing guidelines in this regard without further delay and file the same at the earliest”. The tribunal issued the directive while considering the issue of microplastic contamination in the Ashtamudi Lake. The Bench had taken suo motu cognisance of The Hindu report “Microplastics found in Ashtamudi Lake” published on May 24.
Recalling that the Bench had asked the CPCB to consider the issue as part of the original application No. 99 of 2021, the tribunal stated that the central board was asked to come up with a guideline as to how such unnoticed probably dangerous pollutants can be cropped, besides taking it into account while fixing the standards of Ambient Air Quality criteria.
The Bench had observed that the there was no mechanism to consider the impact of microplastic contamination while considering the ambient air quality in various places.
On the issue of microplastic contamination in Ashtamudi Lake, the tribunal stated that the Kerala State Pollution Control Board, which had filed its report, has stated that there were no sophisticated testing facilities available at the labs under it. The possibilities of outsourcing the microplastic analysis have to be explored by them, it said.
