With the nationwide ban on firecrackers through President Duterte’s Executive Order No. 28, Metro Manila’s almost 13 million residents still succumbed to “hazardous” air during the first hour of 2018.

The hazardous levels were registered in the Airtoday.ph website and application that runs a 24/7 air quality information system for Metro Manila. Between 8:00 PM on Sunday, December 31, 2017 to 7:00 AM on Monday, January 1, 2018, the air quality index ranged between “poor” and “hazardous” indicating the most polluted hours in the metro, earlier and longer compared to that of the previous year which only started at 11:00 PM of December 31, 2016 to 5:00 AM of January 1, 2017. As reminded by World Health Organization (WHO), exposure to Particulate Matter ( PM) concentrations that reach high levels even for just a short period of time could already affect the human respiratory system.

-See more at: http://airtoday.ph/www2/rotary-projects/2018-new-years-eve-air-pollution-significantly-reduced/