The capital has had cleaner air in the past six months than in all of last year, a recent report says.
"There were 81 days with good air quality in Jakarta between January and June. That marks an increase over the 72 days for all of last year and the 64 days for 2006," Esrom Hamonangan, a researcher at the center for environmental impact control at the State Ministry for the Environment, told a public forum Tuesday.
The improvement was correlated with the administration's efforts to reduce sulfur and lead concentrations in diesel oil and gasoline, as well with the use of natural gas as a fuel alternative, he added.
According to Esrom, the improvement in air quality was seen in nine other cities the center monitored across the nation, including Surabaya, Bandung, Semarang, Palangkaraya, Pekanbaru, Pontianak, Medan, Jambi and Denpasar.
The center compiled data from the 10 cities using 33 fixed monitoring stations, 9 mobile stations and 29 data display machines that record the air pollution index.
Less than half the stations and machines were fully operational, Esrom said.
"Nontechnical reasons are to blame, especially a lack of political will on the part of city administrations to provide funds for equipment maintenance," he added.
Fixed monitoring stations cost around Rp 3 billion a piece, with mobile units and data display machines running around Rp 3.5 billion and Rp 175 million each.
Of Jakarta's five fixed monitoring stations, only three are operational, while only two of its data display machines work, Esrom added.
According to a 2006 report from the environmental safety and risk study center at the University of Indonesia's math and science department, the amount of two carcinogens -- polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and benzene -- found in the urine of workers highly exposed to air pollution exceeded acceptable levels.
PAH and benzene result from incomplete fuel combustion in automobile motors.
"A person inhaling PAH and benzene continuously, or at least for eight hours a day, is at greater risk of developing cancer," said Nira Khairani, a researcher at the center.
Using evidence gathered from Jakarta's five municipalities, the report analyzed urine from workers with the greatest exposure to air pollution, including traffic police, street vendors, public transportation drivers, and toll gate and gas station attendants.
For the past two decades, respiratory problems have been among the 10 most prevalent diseases affecting residents of Greater Jakarta, said Ahmad Syafrudin of the Committee for Phasing Out Leaded Gasoline (KPBB), the organizer of the forum.
In 2004, 32 percent of mortality rates from cardiovascular disease and pneumonia, along with 46 percent of all disease incidence -- including respiratory infection, asthma and eye irritation -- were believed to be related to air pollution.
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