In response to the statement issued by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board refuting the findings of the air-quality monitoring work released by Co Media Lab and Climate Trends, the organisations have in turn issued a clarification that the exercise was done to measure peak hour pollution levels in the city for a select amount of time on select routes in the morning as well as in the evening. The objective of the study was to measure and bring to fore the personalised exposure levels one is being subjected to while traveling on busy roads for a few hours every day.

The press note issued on the 19th revealing the data has explicitly mentioned that the results are not comparable to the 24hr averages or the annual regulatory limits as it highlighted Particulate Pollution values for a short period of time only. Moreover, the values released to the press were the instant values for which regulatory limits do not apply and the issued press note emphasised the same.

The Pollution Control Board particularly mentions that the exercise carried out by us is in violation of the monitoring protocols and guidelines issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, these are guidelines laid out for measuring ambient air quality and the exercise was aimed at localised, personal exposure levels only. The two are not to be compared. Further, the was study also done to inform the public and citizen leaders who are actively championing the cause of clean air to engage in collective action with administrative bodies to minimise the impacts of pollution before the situation worsens.

This is a press note sent by Aishwarya Sudhir of Climate Trends, on behalf of Climate Trends and Co Media Lab, published here with minimal edits, in the section Message Forward, as a nonprofit public interest message.