On June 3, Vehicle-free day, the Ecological Monitoring Service of the State Committee for Environment Protection and Land Resources took samples of the air at seven mobile and stationary monitoring units in Ashgabat for analysis of the impact of traffic restriction on the atmosphere. Control samples were taken on the day before, on June 2, which showed the concentration of dust, formaldehyde, phenol and nitrogen dioxide in the air is lower than maximum permissible concentration.

In the result of comparison of the air samples, the specialists found out that after eliminating the exhaust of the vehicles, concentration of dust reduced to 2.06 mg/cu. m., formaldehyde to 0.17 mg/cu. m., phenol to 0.2 mg/cu. m., nitrogen dioxide to 0.16 mg/cu. m.

In other words, the reduction of vehicle traffic, which are the main source of harmful emissions, indeed has positive effect – the air in the city became better. Therefore, regular vehicle-free days are able to turn Ashgabat into true “green” city with high level of ecological comfort.