First it was the traffic police men and now auto drivers. Anti-Pollution Drive (APD) Foundation has initiated the Phase-2 to assess the health impact of air pollution on auto rickshaw drivers of coastal city by conducting the Pulmonary Function Test (PFT) on auto drivers.
The project was initiated with the student interns of IFIM Business School, who were interning with APD Foundation. The testing is done at various auto stands located around the city and mostly at the locations from where they collected the air quality levels - through the ShudhaGaali project.
Speaking to Bangalore Mirror, Abdullah A Rehman, founder, APD Foundation said that study is being conducted under the guidance of Dr Don Gregory, pulmonologist, Fr Muller Hospital. Auto rickshaw drivers are continuously exposed to air pollution and vulnerable to its effect. Sujith Kumar of Lupin Pharmaceuticals Inc is collecting the data vide the spirometer. This study will further enable us to understand an integrated assessment of the impact of air pollution on Mangaluru city, he said
About 250 drivers have been screened and they hope to screen about 500 drivers. Various details such as age, years of service, smoking – non-smoker, asthmatic history, family respiratory history and weight are being collected during the drive.
Abdullah said air pollution is a rising concern in the country and it’s our concern there are no data to show the impact it has had on our environment and its people. We are hoping our data and numbers will fill the gap in the system and help our law and policy makers to provide appropriate solutions or enforce existing laws to mitigate air pollution and its rising impact on our city, he said. The Foundation is in talks with a few hospitals who will offer treatment at concessional rates, he said.
