In an unprecedented move, Attorney-at-law, Lalanath de Silva is taking the Minister for Environment, Nandamitra Ekanayake to court over polluted air. Arguing that the constitution implies the 'Right for Life'(though not spelt out), therefore the right to healthy living, de Silva claims that the polluted air he is forced to breathe in the city is violating that very right and endangering his life. The Fundamental Rights case is set for argument on July 8, before a special bench comprising five judges.

De Silva, in his petition, is asking for certain standards to be set and enforced to reduce pollution of the air. These are standards for emissions, for fuel and for imported vehicles.

As for the Ministry of Environment, air pollution is a matter that they could never get to grips with. Countless committees and consultants have produced as many reports on varied aspects of air pollution- including the ill-effects on health. But very little of this has translated into practical ground level action. In short, very little has been done to actually reduce atmospheric pollutants. Various grand plans to clean up urban air exist on paper but implementation is another story. An ambitious project was drawn up by the UNDP funded Clean Air 2000 committee to drastically reduce level of pollutants by year 2000.

But today, the project does not even exist.

No better example than the smoke meter fiasco. It was as far back as 1987, when R. Premadasa was Prime Minister, that the need for smoke meters to monitor vehicle exhaust emissions was discussed. Coordinated by the CEA, a plan of action was decided upon in 1988 and the importation of smoke meters was top priority.

To cut a very long story short, it took five years more for the smoke meters to arrive. 65 smoke meters were imported at a cost of Rs. 2 million. Several more months lapsed before they were put to practical use. 95 Police officers and 41 RMV officers were trained in the use of the meters. The police were expected to use the meters as mobile units to measure opacity of the smoke emitted from belching vehicles.

The upper limit for opacity was 80 percent and all vehicles belching thicker smoke could be prosecuted by the Police. The monitoring, however, went on for just a few months. Many of the police personnel who were trained in using the equipment were transferred out of Colombo, and increasingly the Traffic Police made excuses for leaving the machines unused. Many were malfunctioning by this time and were simply left without repair. Several malfunctions were detected in the equipment but the machines could not be sent back to the supplier because of a disagreement on payment between the CEA and the Swedish supplier.

Subsequently the Ministry appointed yet another committee to look into what went wrong with the smoke meters. After lengthy deliberations and several sub-committees looking into various aspects of the issue, the Committee decided to heap the blame on the Central Environmental Authority(CEA).

The CEA, the committee said, should immediately trace the meters (some of which were given to RMV, CISIR, CMC Engineering etc.) and try to repair them.

In a stern tone the committee admonished the CEA for not maintaining the equipment.

"If timely action has been taken at the outset it would have been easier to rectify the defects in the meters and also to pursue action with the supplier. Regular servicing and maintenance of the meters has not been carried out," said the report, signed by Committee members, B. Bulumulla, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Forestry and Environment, W.D. Gunawardene, Asst. Commissioner (Technical), Dept. of Motor Traffic and N. Harischandra, Chief Accountant, Ministry of Forestry and Environment.

"We have now started a process of tracing these meters and attempting to repair them," said Lakshman Jayasinghe, Director General of the Central Environmental Authority. But experts say that it will be very unlikely that the finely calibrated electronic equipment could be resurrected after many years of neglect.

The introduction of unleaded fuel is another sore point. Although on paper, plans to phase out lead-added fuel by 2010 exist, very little has been done to push the decision into a practical pitch. The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation's introduction of unleaded petrol at five rupees higher than the normal fuel, had contradictory results. Many stations added new pumps to serve the superior quality petrol, only to close down the pumps soon afterwards for the lack of demand. CPC claimed that the introduction of unleaded fuel was to service the newer luxury type vehicles which are built for unleaded fuel- and of course heeding a request by the CEA to follow international trends. Today only nine stations serve unleaded petrol. 12 have closed down.

"One fine day there will be a complete phasing out of leaded fuel," said Saliya Unamboowe, Marketing Manager of CPC. "But first there has to be a national policy on phasing out and restriction on imports of leaded-fuel vehicles."

Reacting to criticism on the high price of the unleaded fuel, CPC, has reduced the price from Rs. 55 a litre to Rs. 53 a litre from June 1. But until a national action plan comes into play, it is unlikely that the concept will catch on with consumers, who would always choose the lower priced leaded fuel.

"I have research to prove that petrol we use is of substandard quality," Lalanath de Silva said. "Often the pollutants in the city atmosphere has exceeded standard limits set by the CEA- these measurements were obtained from their own monitoring systems."

The ill-effects of lead have been long known. Many western countries and even neighbouring India have phased out leaded fuel opting for cleaner petrol. Certain motor vehicle manufacturers do not even turn out leaded vehicles any more.

A study commissioned by a USAID project in 1993 found shocking details of lead-poisoning in Colombo's population. The worst affected were police officers who had very high concentrations of lead in their blood. Dr. Malini Arewgoda of the University of Kelaniya found that traffic policemen have an average of 53.07 ug/dl (microgram per decilitre) lead in their blood. Her report states that international research has shown that concentrations of over 40 ug/dl could impair nerve transmissions from the brain. Other sections of the population like three-wheel drivers, motor cyclists and school children all had lead levels in their blood but not so high for alarm bells.

"We have to set standards for emissions," de Silva said. "Having standards for ambient air quality does not help to prosecute any polluter."

"Our policy on importing vehicles is also wrong. We encourage dumping of second hand vehicles by imposing a lower duty on them and placing new vehicles out of reach of the masses. New vehicles are better for the country. Reconditioned vehicles pollute more."

How it can affect you

Pollutants released to the air by vehicles, industries and power stations are associated with many respiratory and nerve-system related diseases. Chief among these are Carbon Monoxide CO, Sulphur Dioxide SO2, Lead, Nitrogen Oxides and particulate matter.

Vehicular pollution heads the list and is the cause for much of the CO and lead pollution in urban areas. Carbon Monoxide is known to impair the oxygen carrying capacity of blood by affecting haemoglobin. The lack of oxygen affects the nervous system resulting in lack of vigilance, perception and concentration. High levels of CO poisoning can affect physical activity and impair one's ability to work.

Lead is absorbed through the lungs and deposits in the bones and teeth primarily. Some of it accumulates in the blood. Several systems are known to be affected by lead poisoning. It can cause anaemia and brain dysfunction. Lead can affect kidneys leading to renal failure in extreme cases.

It can cause colic and constipation in the gastro-intestinal system. Lead encephalophathy which occurs in children and adults exposed to high levels of poisoning will manifest as restlessness, irritability and headaches at the start but can even lead to paralysis in severe cases.