(14 December 2015) Called the Asia Pacific Aerosol Database (A-PAD), the project collected data samples over ten years that can now provide exact information in improving environmental policies, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the intergovernmental body which guided the project.
Member states from the Asia-Pacific signed a regional cooperative agreement in 1996 under the auspices of the IAEA to address the problem of worsening air quality.
Over the past ten years, the IAEA trained scientists from Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka and Vietnam to measure air pollution using nuclear techniques. They used equipment from the IAEA to collect, analyse, and classify airborne particulate matters.
Policymakers in China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Mongolia and the Philippines have also used the database to revise air quality regulations in their countries.
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