Taipei, April 22 (CNA) The air quality in most parts of western Taiwan on Sunday was generally rated "unhealthy," because of a lack of wind amid sunny skies and stable weather to disperse atmospheric pollutants, according to the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA).

As of 11 a.m., the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA)'s Air Quality Index (AQI) flashed a red warning, indicating unhealthy air for the general public, at 10 monitoring stations in parts of western Taiwan, including four in northern Taiwan.

Meanwhile, the AQI flashed an orange warning at 31 stations in western Taiwan and at the monitoring station in the outlying island county of Kinmen, the EPA's Air Quality Monitoring Network showed.

In the rest of western Taiwan and all of eastern Taiwan, the air quality was rated as either good or fair, according to the monitoring data.

The EPA's AQI takes into account ozone, PM2.5 and PM10 particulates, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide concentrations in the air.

The AQI in many parts of western Taiwan is expected to flash a red waning or an orange alert later Sunday as the condition was not right for dispersing atmospheric pollutants there, according to the EPA.

With the high number of monitoring stations flashing red and orange alerts in the western parts of the country, Taipower reduced power generation at the coal-fired Taichung Power Plant, the Hsieh-ho Power Plant in Keelung, the Linkou Power Plant in New Taipei and the Hsinta Power Plant in Kaohsiung to cut air pollution emissions, according to the EPA.

The poor air quality will continue until Monday before turning better between Tuesday and Thursday due to the effects of a passing front and northwesterly winds, according to the EPA.

(By Wu Hsin-yun and Evelyn Kao)
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