Pollution is known to give you respiratory disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder and lung cancer. The horror, however, doesn’t stop at that. Exposure to air pollution has now been conclusively linked to stroke-related deaths according to a research, findings of which have been published in British Medical Journal. It was based on an analysis of 103 studies, involving 6.2 million hospitalisations and deaths because of stroke in 28 countries.

Alarmed at what the study portends for the general population of the Capital — which is known to be among the most polluted cities in the world — the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has initiated the country’s first-ever study to understand and ascertain the threat.

The study which will cover 500-800 subjects is being done exclusively in the Capital. Dr. Kameshwar Prasad, Head of Department, Neurology, AIIMS who is heading the study speaking to The Hindu said: “This is purely a Delhi-centric study and is guided by the fact that the city is exposed to very high levels of toxicity because of air pollution. This will be the country’s first study to understand the link between air pollution and stroke.”

He agreed that scientific literature available from abroad have already established a link. “Our study will look at the exact nature and extend of the damage caused by air pollution and how it is pre-disposing persons to high blood pressure and stroke-related deaths,” he added.

The culprit is PM 2.5 which gets embedded in the lungs and the body is unable to throw it out, said environmentalist Kamal Meattle. “These micro particles get into the blood and then it is known to get filtered and stuck to the blood vessels narrowing their circumference, which in turn can lead to a host of diseases,” he said.

The new study at AIIMS is being funded by the Department of Biotechnology and will use air pollution data from the Central Pollution Control Board. “The study, which will look at only the adult population, will analyse the date and time when a patient gets a stroke and compare it with the air pollution at that time,” said Dr. Prasad.

The high risk persons include those with high blood pressure, cholesterol, obesity, old age and physical inactivity and AIIMS is expected to release the result of the study by the year-end.