Particulate Matter in Air

What is the issue?

• Festivals, crop stubble burning, industrial & transportation smoke will soon increase the level of particulate matter in air.  
• This is increase will be sustained due to reduced wind speed as winter sets in.

What does the statistics say?

• ‘Global Burden of Disease’ study estimates that, in India, ambient air pollution is responsible for 3,283 premature deaths every day.
• India also recorded the largest deaths due to pollution during the past 25 years.
• Half of the top 20 polluted cities in the world are in India.

What are the long term health effects?

• Till now, almost all air pollution-related deaths were thought to be due to lung diseases.
• However, evidence of pollution aggravating other diseases like heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and cancer is coming up.
• Especially deaths related to ‘particulate matter’ may not be because of diseases of lungs, but due to these other conditions.
• Ultrafine particulate matter emitted by road traffic, rapidly enters the bloodstream after being inhaled.
• These particles then interfere with the normal reactivity of blood vessels, and are distributed to many organs including the kidneys.

What is the way ahead?

• Remedial measures have shown reduction in adverse outcomes effects and improved life expectancy in several parts of the world.
• Better urban planning with proper land-use assessment and environment consciousness needs to be done.
• Inter-disciplinary groups to evaluate the full range of impacts of air pollution on human health are needed.
• Tools need to be developed to identify pollutants, find origin of particles, and develop culturally-appropriate solutions.

Source: The Hindu