EMB-6 monitors air quality around Mt. Kanlaon

BACOLOD CITY, May 15 ------ The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Environmental Management Bureau in Western Visayas (EMB-6) continues to monitor the air quality in communities affected by the latest eruption of Mt. Kanlaon in Negros Island to ensure public health and protect the environment. 

In the air quality monitoring at the La Carlota City and Bago City evacuation centers conducted at 8 a.m. and 1 p.m., respectively, on Tuesday, air quality index was considered “good,” summary results showed Wednesday. Summary of results taken at the Kanlaon Volcano sampling sites showed that the air quality index at the La Castellana Station, which was monitored at 11 a.m., is also good. However, at the Ara-al Station, which was checked at 10 a.m., the air quality index is considered “unhealthy for sensitive groups” or people with respiratory diseases such as asthma, who are advised to limit outdoor exertion. 

The EMB advised affected residents to “stay vigilant and adhere to health and safety advisories.” On Tuesday, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology reported a moderately explosive eruption at 2:55 a.m., lasting five minutes and generating a grayish plume that rose about 4.5 kilometers above the summit crater and drifted southwest. 

Presence of incandescent pyroclastic density currents flowing down the southern slopes within two kilometers of the crater was confirmed and ballistic fragments were observed, igniting vegetation near the summit. Alert Level 3 or magmatic unrest continue to prevail over Kanlaon Volcano.  

Source: pna.gov.ph