Manila 'paints' its air clean

The Philippines capital Manila, one of the world's most polluted cities, has launched an initiative to purify its air.

The city's development authority is hoping to battle invisible toxic fumes such as nitrogen oxide by decorating the busiest areas with visible coats of air-purifying paint.

The government says about 5,000 people die every year from air pollution, as air quality there can get to levels worse than Beijing, despite having a smaller population.

Al Jazeera's Marga Ortigas reports from Manila.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• asiapacificnews
• Philippines
• manila
• manila pollution
• Marga Ortigas
• environment
• air purifying paint

[KenRocker1968]

...

[rosapi1]

@Bander1 philippines dont need you ,so what if it coz a billion to clean up !!!People you are not perfect to .

[gstlnrd]

Just read some comments here and stopped straight away. CRAB mentality is indeed stilll alive and well. Poor Manila, can't even have a fair go. Shame!

[stangeriam]

@kurtilein3 suppose i should have not been so vague.. I was simply stating that there are clean energies out their to be had, and we the people are getting f8#ked and forced into gas/oil....enslaved I guess is a better way to put it.

The first electric car was built in the 1800's...we could save plenty of fuel by turbo charging vehicles...on and on the story goes. They DO NOT give two shits about the health of the planet, nor us...all about their own greedy old asses

[Bander1]

Manila becoming clean!!!!????

That's a laugh...its kinda like saying that a nympho will become chaste or a drug addict will miraculously become clean...

Cleaning up manila will cost billions...and the Phil gov. is one of the most corrupt mutherfuckers on the planet. Dream on...

[daniells71]

guinea pigs

[kurtilein3]

@ZirconCode

There is a catch. If you touch it, your fingers are white, because the titanium oxide needs to be right at the surface, in direct air contact, and cannot be surrounded by a different substance like it is in all other paints.

[kurtilein3]

@aussiedownunderman

any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, at least for people that dont understand it. Maybe if you would look at how the paint actually works, you would find out that you are the idiot here.

[kurtilein3]

@The88Nomad

a simple test: if you touch the painted surface, and your fingers dont have white powder on it afterwards, its not a catalytically active paint.

[kurtilein3]

@The88Nomad

White paint most often contains little grains of titanium trioxide, surrounded by a clear resin, making it useless as a catalyst because the titanium oxide does not come into direct contact with the air. To make it active as a catylist, two changes are needed: smaller grain size, and as the paint hardens the titanium oxide needs to move to the surface.