Bermudians can all breathe a little easier, knowing that a Bermuda’s air quality has received a top grade from an environmental research scientist at the Bermuda Institute for Ocean Sciences (BIOS).

“Bermuda’s overall air quality is good,” said Dr. Andrew Peters, associate research scientist at BIOS. “I would give it an A.”

Dr. Peters is in charge of an air quality monitoring programme at BIOS, which is contracted by the Ministry of the Environment to carry out environmental testing and research. The programme was initially started in the 1980s, to create a baseline comparing air quality before and after the Tynes Bay incinerator was built. And so far the news has been very positive.

“The incinerator has had very little impact on the air quality as far as we can tell,” said Dr. Peters. “In addition to the air quality analysis, every five years there is a major survey done across Bermuda looking at contaminants or potential contaminants in soil and in water tanks, and in the sediment in those tanks.”

The air quality team, which consists of Dr. Peters and research technician Matt Ashfold, has taken soil samples from 50-60 sites across Bermuda. In 2005 they also looked at 110 water tanks. The results in this quarter were also good.

“We couldn’t find any pattern of the things we were looking for,” Dr. Peters said. “We were looking for a range of heavy metals, things like chromium, cadmium, mercury and lead. We didn’t really find any pattern in the water tank sediment and soil that could be attributed clearly to the incinerator.”

Dr. Peters said this was partly attributed to the location of the incinerator. For the most part, prevailing winds carry the plume of emissions out to sea to the north and east of Bermuda, but there are times when it does blow inland and there is some deposition locally.

“We monitor at a site south of the stack on top of Prospect Hill near CedarBridge Academy,” Dr. Peters said. “We continually monitor a couple of toxic gasses, particulate matter of different size fractions. The levels we detect there are typical of background levels anywhere else in the world.”

“If the emissions levels from the incinerator were high then the short-term impact would be on people who are susceptible to asthma and breathing problems,” said Dr. Peters.

He also said that all water tanks tested met the drinking water standards enforced in Bermuda apart from three or four tanks which were found to have high nitrate levels. The high nitrate levels were due to people using well water to top up their water tanks.

“Details of those were passed on to the department who contacted the owners directly,” Dr. Peters said. “But generally, the water quality was good.”

However, Dr. Peters said questions remain about what impact sediment might have on water tanks over the long term. Sediment forms at the bottom of Bermuda tanks from soil, leaves and other debris washing into the tank through the roof gutter system.

“That is a piece of information we just don’t have an idea about at the moment,” said Dr. Peters. “Everybody knows when your water tank is filled, or you get heavy rainfall, it stirs up the sediment in the tank for a short while. That sediment may get into the plumbing system, through the pipes through to the faucets in the kitchen or bathroom. It may be insignificant, it may be important, we just don’t have enough information.”

Dr. Peters and his team did not look at microbial contaminants in the water such as bacteria and parasites, although the health department does this.

“In the state of the environment report that came out last year, they had information about the number of tanks that failed the regulations for bacteria,” he said. “It was quite high. That is of concern. The sediment being transported is the key for human exposure to contaminants either chemical or microbiological.

“Generally, things like that are transported attached to these fine particles in the tanks. Further research would help describe what is happening to the chemicals in the tank and that would equally apply to the bacteria.”

The air quality testing programme also monitors a number of other sites including near Belco in the City of Hamilton, East Broadway, and at BIOS in Ferry Reach. From time to time the BIOS team responds to requests from the Department of Environmental Protection to undertake monitoring at other sites.

“The site at East Broadway looks at suspended particulate matter in the air from traffic,” he said. “Those silver boxes you see on the side of the road at East Broadway measure different size ranges of particulate matter. Of the sites we monitor, East Broadway records the highest levels of particulate matter. But it is right next to one of the busiest roads in Bermuda.”

The scientist said that East Broadway is the worst case scenario in Bermuda, and the air there is comparable to any major city in North America or Europe. However, he said it was nothing to panic about.

“The pollution level there surprises a lot of people,” he said. “But it shouldn’t really given the amount of traffic we have in Bermuda. Yes, East Broadway has higher levels there than anywhere else we are measuring, but that is because it is right next to a highway. It is to be expected. It is not out of the ordinary. If you are going to have cars and this modern lifestyle, you are going to have this impact.”

Dr. Peters said that although people blame traffic air pollution on cars, in Bermuda some of the worst offenders are actually trucks and scooters.

“In fact, for every mile driven, scooters emit more pollutants than cars,” he said. “They make more particulate matter and carbon monoxide. Their engines are less efficient. Although cars still contribute to air pollution, car engine technology over the last ten years has really been forced to improve mainly by legislation in the United States and Europe. There has been less emphasis, until now, on motorcycles and scooters. That is beginning now to catch up.”

He said four stroke engines in cycles are more efficient than two strokes. Dr. Peters would like to see emissions testing done on every vehicle, regardless of its age.

“You can’t expect a 20-year-old vehicle to have the same standards of emissions as a new vehicle,” he said. “But you should still set limits to what it should reach. That would make an improvement.”

However, he said he didn’t want to sound complaisant, because it is still important to keep monitoring air pollution. He felt that emissions testing on vehicles in Bermuda would really help to improve the situation.

“Although scooters and buses are a concern, cars still make a contribution to air pollution,” said Dr. Peters. “Car engines should be properly tuned and maintained.

“Get the oil changed periodically. Don’t tamper with any emissions control technology that is on there. I have heard that people remove catalytic converters from their cars for whatever reason. If you remove this equipment, you are increasing emissions.”

He said diesel trucks and buses are another source of air pollution. “It is the fine particulate matter that is the biggest concern,” he said. “However, on a pollution per person basis, it still pays to take public transportation rather than to take a car, because you are spreading the emissions load over more people.

“It is a paradox and it is confusing to a lot of people. Scooters do use less gas, so in that sense they are better than cars for the environment, because they are using less space and fossil fuels. They make a lower contribution to carbon dioxide emissions. So from a climate change-carbon dioxide-green house gas-point of view scooters are better. But, in terms of the more acute environmental impacts they are worse. So it is a difficult balance.”

Another project BIOS scientists have been working on is monitoring mercury levels in Bermuda’s atmosphere.

“The Atlantis Project 2003 identified a potential cause of concern as being mercury in some fish,” said Dr. Peters. “So we were interested in finding out where that might be coming from. So we started sampling air and rainfall to look at mercury content. We found it is fairly low here in Bermuda. It is slightly higher than levels measured in the open ocean in the Sargasso Sea a few years ago, but lower than what is detected in major cities in the United States, for example. What we did find was that there may be some very minor local source that is elevated during some conditions. But again it is not near hazardous levels.”

So although Dr. Peters gave Bermuda’s air quality a good report over all, he said there were localised hot spots that we needed to work on.

“We need to work on traffic emissions,” he said. “I stress it is not just a question of getting cars off the road, it is cleaning out the vehicles that are there. Even if you halve the number of cars on the road, I don’t think it would have much of an impact on the air quality.”