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| Air Pollution: An emergency! | | | Dr. Pragya Khanna | 1/4/2020 10:10:14 PM |
| I remember the days when I was a research scholar (around two decades ago) and often visited Delhi for different purposes where the air pollution in those days was so bad my eyes would burn and it hurt; in the evenings I used to enter the guesthouse crying like I had been teargased. The situation has worsened since then, I hear people now celebrate when they see blue sky. People are seen wearing face masks, they prefer exercising at the gyms, don't take their babies out often unless it's an emergency. "I often have a bitter taste or thick feeling on my mouth and tongue when I walk home at rush hour", says my friend who works at Connaught Place. People also suffer skin problems, difficulty breathing, chest pain and coughs. This is a grim situation and a scary problem, the same is also evident in the form of taint visible on buildings and scum on the surface of water.
I was startled to read this headline about two months ago (as on November 19) "Deadly air pollution may cut 17 years from a Delhiite's life". At present, residents of Delhi are breathing about 25 times more toxic air than the permissible limit according to World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.
It is more staggering to note that 92 per cent of people worldwide do not breathe clean air. Yes! Approximately 7 million people in the world die due to air pollution every year and out of 7 million, 4 million occur in Asia-Pacific. Over a quarter of global deaths from air pollution occurs in India. This amounts to more deaths than diarrheal disease, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS combined. This finding more than doubles previous estimates and confirms that air pollution is now the world's largest single environmental health risk. You have to agree that air quality is known to affect the quality of your life. It's hard not to empathize (and often relate to) with the people in the murky images of New Delhi or China or Kathmandu, often wearing masks, walking to school or work though soupy cloudiness.
With the air in India growing more toxic with each passing year from the discharge of chemical pollutants from a variety of sources, there is a call-to-action for everyone in the nation to come together and combat the environmental challenges of our time.
Air pollution is a broad term that generally describes a mixture of different chemicals that circulate in the air. Invisible gases, like ozone or carbon monoxide, and tiny particles or droplets of liquids mix together in the atmosphere. Each molecule is impossible to see with the naked eye, but when trillions gather together, you can see them as haze. These chemicals are almost always mixed together in varied amounts. Scientists do not yet understand how these different mixtures affect us. Each person responds differently to air pollution exposure, some people have few effects, while others, such as kids with asthma, might become very ill. What's more, air pollution mixtures in a given location change over time. Changes can occur quickly over a few hours or gradually over months.
You might envisage air pollution as smoke coming out of a factory chimney or the tailpipe of a car. While these are significant sources of air pollution, there are many others. Air pollution includes chemicals humans put into the atmosphere and chemicals released by natural events. For example, forest fires are a large source of air pollutants that affect many communities. Dust that's picked up by wind can also contribute to poor air quality.
There are also many chemical reactions that occur in the air itself. These reactions create what are known as secondary pollutants, some of which are quite toxic. Finally, it's important to comprehend that air pollution knows no boundaries. If a pollutant is emitted in one locality or at one site, it very easily moves across borders both regional and national to different places. New Delhi, for example, experiences seasonal pollution, thanks to extensive burning of agricultural fields some 200 miles away.
A typical adult takes around 20,000 breaths per day. Whether or not you become sick from air pollution depends on the amount and type of chemicals you inhale, and whether you might be susceptible to these diseases. For someone living in polluted New Delhi, for example, those 20,000 breaths include the equivalent of around 20 grains of table salt worth of particulate matter deposited in their lungs each day. While this may not seem like much, keep in mind that this particulate matter isn't harmless table salt, it's a mixture of chemicals that come from burning materials, unburned oils, metals and even biological material. And this doesn't include any of the pollutants that are gases, like ozone or carbon monoxide or oxides of nitrogen that can be exhaled.
Moreover the impact of air pollution is not only restricted to when we expose ourselves to the outdoors, the effect of indoor air pollution is also health related and more of an environmental issue. The construction of the buildings along with cooling and heating methods make use of airtight spaces, less ventilation with use of synthetic building materials all adds to the smells from household care and furnishing chemicals that get trapped indoors. As less fresh air gets indoors, the concentration of pollutants such as pollen, tobacco smoke, mold, pesticides, radon, asbestos and carbon monoxide trapped inside the building increases and people breathe that in.
Indoor air pollution is the degradation of indoor air quality by harmful chemicals and other materials; it can be up to 10 times worse than outdoor air pollution. This is because contained areas enable potential pollutants to build up more than open spaces. Statistics suggest that in developing countries, health impacts of indoor air pollution far outweigh those of outdoor air pollution. Indoor air pollution from solid fuels accounted for 3.5 million deaths in 2010; it also accounted for 16% particulate matter pollution. Though there is a decrease in household air pollution from solid fuels in Southeast Asia, still it ranked third among risk factors in the report of the Global Burden of Disease.
It is the dire need of the hour that we hold hands at the global level to curb air pollution and give the lungs of all the life on earth a chance to breathe pure. The world needs to control the power stations and large-scale industrial plants; have improved emission standards for industrial processes and road vehicles; widespread and effective vehicle inspection; and maintenance and dust control from roads and construction. There has to be a check leading to reducing burning agricultural crop residues, municipal waste burning, and forests; livestock manure management be done effectively (thereby reducing ammonia and methane emissions); efficient application of nitrogenous fertilisers (reducing ammonia and NOx). The Govt. needs to check modern brick kilns; emission controls on international shipping; widespread introduction of low solvent paints; and reduced leakages and accidental releases from oil refineries.
There should be greater emphasis on solutions that contribute to other development priorities and also improve air quality. Many of these actions address climate change, such as increasing renewable energy, more electric vehicles, improved energy efficiency in households and industry, improved public transport, methane recovery from improved solid waste management and waste water treatment, and reducing flaring and recovery of petroleum gas.
As we have seen, there are considerable uncertainties in estimating both exposures and effects and their relationships. It may be, for example, that the effects of long-term exposure to lower concentrations of air pollutants could be more damaging to public health than short-term exposure to higher concentrations. For this reason alone, local authorities could take action to assess and improve local air quality. It is not sufficient to wait for an episode of severe air pollution and then try to deal with its effects.
I conclude with the wisdom of Michael Bloomberg, "Other ways of looking at the environmental or climate change stuff is to frame it in the context that it is simultaneously a public health issue. One out of eight premature deaths worldwide happens because of air pollution. The worst power plant in America kills 278 people a year and causes 445 heart attacks. So, when we improve air quality we improve our lives, and at the same time we improve the climate as well. We must see climate policy from this perspective and not as an abstract threat that may threaten our survival in 100 years."
Let's contemplate….. |
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