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As a child growing up in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Dr. Ranil Dhammapala of the Washington State Department of Ecology’s Air Quality Program did not think much of air pollution, though people in his community often burned tires and plastic, and used high-sulfur diesel as fuel.

“That’s just what people did,” Dhammapala said.

heritage bankHowever, when he was a teenager Dhammapala read an article in a newsletter at his church youth group arguing that instead of subduing or having dominion over the earth, according to some translations of Genesis 1:28, people should act as stewards of the earth and have the responsibility of taking care of it. He took from the article that instead of pillaging and plundering the earth and “making the planet work for you” for personal gain, we should preserve it for everybody’s benefit. 

This is what construction debris disposal looks like in Ranil Dhammapala's hometown of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photo courtesy: Ranil Dhammapala.
This is what construction debris disposal looks like in Ranil Dhammapala’s hometown of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photo courtesy: Ranil Dhammapala.

A few years later when Dhammapala was studying chemistry at the University of Zimbabwe, a professor encouraged him to get involved in a research project monitoring ozone levels in the eastern highlands of Zimbabwe. During the project he worked in the lab performing chemical analysis on samples collected from the monitored area, and in the process fell in love with the field of air quality.

Dhammapala returned to Sri Lanka after receiving a bachelor’s degree from the University of Zimbabwe and a master’s from Potchefstroom University in South Africa (now a part of the larger North-West University), having realized the great need for clean air throughout the world.

After working for four years in air quality, he decided to pursue a doctorate in the field and found himself at Washington State University. He conducted research partially funded by the Department of Ecology while at WSU, and upon his graduation in 2006, he applied for a job as an Atmospheric Scientist with the state’s Air Quality Program and got it.

“Over the years I’ve become convinced that my calling is to help people breathe cleaner air,” Dhammapala said. His position with the Department of Ecology allows him to do just that.

Ranil Dhammapala is shown here at an agricultural field burn experiment in Walla Walla. Photo courtesy: Ranil Dhammapala.
Ranil Dhammapala is shown here at an agricultural field burn experiment in Walla Walla. Photo courtesy: Ranil Dhammapala.

Although the air in Thurston County and Washington State as a whole is relatively clean, Dhammapala and the other approximately 100 state ecology employees, work to minimize the significant problems that do exist in order to give residents a better quality of life, free of emergency room visits related to asthma attacks or long-term health problems caused by polluted air.

According to Dhammapala, the biggest air quality concern Washington faces is wintertime wood smoke build up caused by people heating their houses with wood stoves. When air stagnates during winter, skies clear, temperatures drop, the wind doesn’t blow and pollutants are trapped in a shallow air layer above the ground. Unlike Washington, Sri Lanka struggles with other sources of air pollution such as vehicle emissions and improper trash disposal.

Another large Washington air quality concern during the summer is wildfires. Smoke can often affect air quality hundreds of miles away from the fire itself. Dhammapala makes air quality forecasts and translates that data into something the public can understand, works with the Department of National Resources, the US Forest Service, and local health districts, and others to issue community air quality warnings and advisories so that people can stay safe during fires and other times of poor air quality.

Ranil Dhammapala and his family are pictured at Lion's Paw, Sigiriya Rock during a trip to Sri Lanka in June. Photo courtesy: Ranil Dhammapala.
Ranil Dhammapala and his family are pictured at Lion’s Paw, Sigiriya Rock during a trip to Sri Lanka in June. Photo courtesy: Ranil Dhammapala.

“Even though you can’t really prevent the pollution, what you can do is help people realize what they are likely to be exposed to and then let them make their own decisions on how to minimize their exposure to [air pollutants],” Dhammapala said. “You routinely get calls from schools and even parents [asking] if they should send their child to sports practice or if they should cancel some sporting event.”

Currently, there is concern about a build-up of ground level ozone, an ingredient of smog, concentrating around the Tri-Cities and into North Central Oregon. Dhammapala is the person in charge leading research efforts, in partnership with WSU, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and a few other entities, to figure out what is causing the ground level ozone build up.

The challenges in air quality management today are more subtle than they were a few decades ago, and require more sophisticated solutions. According to Dhammapala, emissions of air pollutants have gone down across the nation and issues such as the Los Angeles’s smog problem of the 20th century have mostly disappeared, but scientists are facing new problems without much information to go off of.

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Ranil Dhammapala is pictured with his son while on a trip to Sri Lanka this June. Photo courtesy: Ranil Dhammapala.

“We’ve essentially changed the type of pollution and there’s very little research on the health effects of these pollutants,” which include synthetic organic materials and nano particles, Dhammapala said. Although air pollution in Thurston County is definitely not as bad as many places such as New Delhi, which is the “air pollution capital of the world,” according to Dhammapala, he believes the Department of Ecology must keep working to control new pollutants and stay on top of air quality monitoring as population rises and more and more cars are on the road.

Dhammapala’s job can sometimes be challenging, such as when the sophisticated models that predict weather and air quality do not produce accurate forecasts, and when the organizations and people the Department of Ecology collaborates with are not all in agreement. However, he enjoys the job because he appreciates doing high level, intellectually stimulating work for a direct public health benefit. Looking at data, identifying a problem, coming up with a feasible solution, and then “seeing the air quality improve in some community is the best part,” Dhammapala said.

If you are a student and are interested in working with the Department of Ecology, go to www.ecy.wa.gov and check out the Ecology Youth Corps (ages 14-17) or Washington Conservation Corps (ages 18-25).  Watch a cool video, produced by the Washington State Department of Ecology, related to inversions.

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