SDCEA Expands & Explores New Pollution Monitoring in Effort to Clean Up the Air
Steven Van Wyk, who coordinates Bucket Brigade air sampling in South
Durban, takes side by side samples with the bucket air samplers.
Steven shows off a passive sample device or 'badge' that can be left out for several days to absorb toxic air pollution.
SDCEA has pushed hard to make sure that city officials place the
passive samplers in hot spots like the Tinkerbell Creche for toddlers that
is across the street from the Engen refinery.
The passive sampler holds a carbon tube inside a sponging diffuser that
aborbs gases into the tube.
The passive sampler is hung in trees like this one near the Island View
Tank Farm area of Durban to examine how much Benzene, Toluene and Xyenes that are emitted by the facility.
After a period of several days, the passives are retrieved by a team of city officials and SDCEA staff.
The Settlers Primary School in the shadow of the Engen refinery is one
of the sites for intensive sampling due to the high rates of asthma, cancer
and other pollution related diseases.
staff and GCM Director, Denny Larson, visited the new fenceline
monitoring system installed by Shell at their spill site where over 1
million liters of gasoline was spilled. The system by the Cerex company
from the USA uses an ultra-violet beam that shoots across the path of
air pollution and detects chemicals in the air.
Inside the control room, data from the Cerex air pollution monitor is
displayed on a computer monitor in real time. The display also shows
wind direction and the types of chemicals so that they can be tracked
to the source. Unfortunately Durban City health officials are refusing
to install this type of real time VOC (volatile organic chemicals)
monitoring in their new network.