Must assess pollution impact: Centre to all ministries

The Times of India , Wednesday, March 01, 2017
Correspondent : Jayashree Nandi
NEW DELHI: The union environment ministry recently expressed doubts about international reports that link air pollution with mortality and recommended exercising caution in interpreting these studies. But now the union health ministry along with the World Health Organisation (WHO) is set to release a public declaration on the health impacts of air pollution.

The "Delhi commitment on multi-sectoral action for addressing air pollution" in fact recommends air pollution impact assessment be made mandatory for all ongoing and new public policies of various ministries. It also recommends investment of "additional human and financial resources" to reduce exposure to air pollution, need to rapidly find ways to bring clean fuel and technologies to equip the poor to deal with impacts. The declaration is based on a meeting attended by health ministry's steering committee on air pollution, health ministry officials, officials from ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) and ministry of petroleum and natural gas (MoPNG) on the implementation of the steering committee report on air pollution published in 2015.

Interestingly, the executive summary of the implementation report refers to the WHO Global Burden of Disease report 2010 which states-- "Over 6 lakh deaths and about 18 million life years are attributable to ambient air pollution in India."

The steering committee which has public health experts, scientists, central pollution control board (CPCB) officials, WHO representatives as members and is being coordinated by Dr DamodarBachani, deputy commissioner, non-communicable diseases (NCD) programme of the health ministry had released a report in 2015—an analysis of existing scientific literature on health impacts of air pollution.

It had established the link between premature mortality and air pollution. "The spectrum of adverse health effects associated with air pollution exposure ranges from increase in prevalence acute and chronic respiratory symptoms, changes in pulmonary function and adverse reproductive outcomes (including low birth weight and pre-term delivery) to increased mortality from cardiovascular or respiratory diseases or lung cancer," the report had stated.

The report had also quoted a number of Indian studies that have established the strong co-relation between health impacts like microscopic hemorrhage in the lungs in residents of Delhi and Kolkata or another where traffic policemen and street hawkers had elevated levels of neutrophils and eosinophils in their sputum samples. The study however acknowledged that India doesn't have long term cohort studies to establish the link between mortality and air pollution which is why the mortality data is based on estimates from international studies.

"Air pollution exposure has been associated with mortality through heart and lung diseases in various studies conducted across the world, including in India. Some of these have been cited in the Ministry of Health's steering committee report released in January 2016, which compiled the best available evidence in the Indian context. These and global studies such as the GBD assess the probability of mortality through various diseases such as Ischemic Heart Disease, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and strokes by examining the increased risk associated with various levels of exposures." said Bhargav Krishna from the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and steering committee member.

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) scientists however said they are wary of international studies on health impacts of air pollution in India. Referring to the recent Health Effects Institute's "State of Global Air 2017" study, DipankarSaha, head of CPCB's air lab said "They have even included ozone data and said ozone levels are very high in India when our data shows we rarely exceed the standard. That's why we are suspicious."

 
SOURCE : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/pollution/must-assess-pollution-impact-centre-to-all-ministries/articleshow/57404705.cms
 


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