LUCKNOW: Increasing vehicle population (7,49,830 as per ITRC survey in March 2005) has led to exceptionally high concentrations of air pollutants in Lucknow. This causes respiratory ailments, heart diseases, cancer and premature deaths among the people.
"Polluted air has adverse effect on people, specially on infants, children, elderly people and people with asthma, bronchitis etc.
Exposure to pollution results in an increase in bronchitis, respiratory ailments, oedema of lungs, cardiovascular diseases and dust allergies," said a scientist at the Indian Toxicology Research centre (ITRC), JS Gaur.
But now masks provide us with a solution, said Gaur. Masks protects us from the hazards of air pollution as it absorbs significant amounts of metals and polycyclic auromatic hydro carbon (PAH) emitted from vehicles, he added.
Explaining the procedure in detail, he further added that air contains gases and dust particles. Bigger particles are filtered by the nasal hair but the smaller ones are inhaled, which are termed as respirable small particulate matter (RSPM). They get lodged deep down in the lower respiratory tracts causing several diseases.
For the purpose scientists at ITRC conducted experiments on the effectiveness of masks on 200 people."On analysing the results after sixty days, it was found that the a good number of test subjects felt better after using the mask," said Gaur.
Regular surveys of the city's air pollution by ITRC has revealed that concentrations of PAHs, specially the levels of suspended particulate matter (SPM) --present in air and respiratory suspended particulate matter (RSPM) were both very high.
According to the ITRC study, PAH in the city was 11 times the permissible limit for residential areas and four times as high for industrial areas.
HoD, pulmonary, medicine, KGMU, Dr Rajendra Prasad, talking to TOI said masks, having good quality filters can prevent harmful substances from entering the body.
