The National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change (INECC) and the National Metrology Center (CENAM) signed a specific collaboration agreement for the project called «establishment of reference materials are traceable to international measurement system, for use in calibration of measuring equipment of volatile organic compounds air pollutants and greenhouse gases criteria. »
This will allow the CENAM develop reference gases with higher quality and reduce uncertainty in the data generated in the country’s networks, including carbon monoxide (CO), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide ( SO2) and ozone (O3) and Volatile Organic Pollutants.
The Director General of INECC, María Amparo Martinez Arroyo, reported that more than 50 localities with networks or stations monitoring air quality in Mexico, which to date certified calibration gases used by the Environmental Protection Agency United States (USEPA), with the results they generate highly relevant to know and prevent environmental pollution in different populations of the country.
He explained that this agreement will further incorporate international standards of quality measurements that perform monitoring networks and systems Atmospheric Monitoring country that have the function to assess air quality input to protect the health of the population precontingencia through programs and atmospheric contingency.
Also, the federal official said that the result of reliable measurements help to have more accurate trend of air pollutants and in turn Monitoring Systems are consistent with the ways of working with quality control and assurance, matter that is very current in international environmental agencies such as the US, Canada, Europe and Japan.
Importantly will continue to develop reference materials hydrocarbons, reactive and toxic substances. With its development will be better assessed these as ozone precursors and thus have more evidence to reduce the pollutant in the main cities of the country.
The agreement signed by the Director of INECC and the Director of CENAM Hector Nava Jaimes, has its antecedents in September 2007, when the two institutions signed a collaboration agreement to establish and maintain the pattern of ozone, ie start and operation of a complex and capable of generating this substance with high precision and which in turn serves to gauge the performance of ozone monitors in the country, only team in Latin America team.
In 2012, again signed an agreement to establish in Mexico reference materials to calibrate the measurement of volatile organic aromatic compounds such as Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylenes, the family of the BTEX, toxic compounds and reagents that analyzes the INECC.
Similarly, the INECC and Ehime University signed a memorandum of understanding in November 2010, through collaboration with the International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as part of the Science and Technology Research (SATREPS) of JICA and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).
Through this agreement a draft five years, from 2010-2015, which considers the case study in the three major cities of Mexico, Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey, where pollutant measurement campaigns were conducted began atmospheric, so that measures to help reduce the effects of climate change and air pollution, based on information and knowledge that is created during the project are identified. One of the actions arising therefrom, was working for the development of standard reference gases nationwide.
At the event were present Naoki Kamijo, Director General of Technical Assistance and International Cooperation in Mexico; Shinji Wakamatsu, Ehime University and project leader in Japan; Ulises Alberto Esteban Marina, Director General of Standards of the Ministry of Economy; Victor Hugo Paramo Figueroa, General Coordinator of Environmental Health and Pollution INECC; Hideaki Sasaki, Second Secretary and Added in Agriculture of the Embassy of Japan in Mexico; Yoshito Mitani Nakanishi, Managing Director of Materials CENAM, and Sergio Hernández Zirath Villaseñor, Director of Research and Monitoring Atmospheric Pollutants Analytical Characterization INECC.
