Mumbai, February 22: The state government is planning to launch a first ever survey to assess the impact of air pollution on the respiratory health of children.
To be conducted in three of the most polluted cities in Maharashtra—Mumbai, Pune and Chandrapur—the study will be accompanied by the setting up of ambient air quality monitoring stations to measure the pollution levels in these cities.
The survey is planned over a longer period of time to ascertain the long-term impact of air pollution on the respiratory diseases affecting children. The state environment department, which has initiated the move, is planning to involve Mumbai’s KEM hospital and the state public department in the exercise.
Said Sharvaree Gokhale, Principal Secretary, Environment: “The selection of children as subjects for the survey allows us to study them for longer periods. Moreover, in case of children, it is also easy to assess whether the respiratory diseases like asthma have been caused by pollution, unlike adults who may have contracted them due to other factors like smoking.”
While Mumbai and Pune are among the cities with the highest vehicular population, Chandrapur located in Vidharbha, too tops the pollution charts with a thermal power plant, cement factories and coal mines.
The survey, which will be partially funded by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), will also aim to generate a comprehensive database about the selected children and their family history. This will be useful in suggesting remedial measures at the end of the survey.
Said Gokhale: “We will try to get details like whether the respiratory diseases affecting children are hereditary, whether the problems have been aggravated by pollution, residential area, level of affluence and whether the child’s parents grew up in the city.”
Though Mumbai has air quality monitoring stations, some set up by the MPCB and the rest by private companies, most of them are concentrated in Chembur.
The state is trying to rationalise them, and spread them out in the rest of the city to get an accurate picture of the pollution. Some new ones will also be set up, like the one set up by the MPCB on the premises of the Director of Technical Education (DTE) in the Bandra-Kurla complex, which will be inaugurated on March 1.
New air quality monitoring stations will also be set up in Pune and Chandrapur in addition to the existing facilities.
