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EVENTS AND ISSUES
New Delhi, 17 July 2006
Air Pollution Problem
Disastrous Impact On Environment
By
Dhurjati Mukherjee
The human impact on the environment has indeed been
disastrous. And with Western-induced
strategy of development and consumerist approach to life and living in
countries like India,
environmental problems have accentuated since the 1990s.
At the present juncture, Indians are very much exposed to
dangerous levels of highly toxic gases, including carcinogenic organic
compounds and sulphur and sulphur fumes, through the air they breathe. The
levels of air borne suspended particulate matter recorded in the large metro
cities, especially Delhi and also Kolkata and
Mumbai, far exceeded air quality standards adopted by India and many
other developing countries. Two independent analyses estimated that urban air
pollution in the country could be responsible for about 40,000 premature deaths
annually (Brandon & Homman 1995, WHO 2002), primarily due to human exposure
to elevated levels of particulate matter.
This being the situation the Community Environment
Monitoring (CEM) report titled ‘Smokescreen Ambient Air Quality in India’
(released in June 2006), has found that the country is “pathetically behind in
terms of infrastructure to safeguard its environment or health of people from
air pollution”. India’s
air pollution monitoring is primitive and the world’s fourth largest economy
has no standards for most of the toxic and commonly found air pollutants, the
CEM’s Shweta Narayan pointed out. In fact, the report revealed that the air in
the country is unfit to breathe.
The study observed that compared to 1997, carbon monoxide
levels are down 32 per cent and sulphur dioxide levels 39 per cent. While the
change has been remarkable, it has lulled regulators into complacency. The air
has never been monitored for toxic gases and has therefore never been regulated
for the same, the report pointed out with special reference to Delhi.
In another more comprehensive study conducted by the World
Bank (June 2006), progress and
challenges of air quality management between 1993 and 2002 of five cities in
the country have been analyzed. It found that despite efforts to curb air
pollution, respirable suspended particulate matter (RSPM), the main pollutant
of public health concern, has been the highest and significantly above the
national standards in Delhi
and Kolkata, specially in winter.
Delhi continues to have the highest
levels, notwithstanding the implementation of the most extensive programme of
air quality management. Moreover ambient concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2)
have exhibited an increase in recent years although still at relatively low
levels.
However, the achievement has been that between the years
1993 and 2002, the RSPM declined which might have led to nearly 13,000 fewer
cases of premature deaths and much greater reductions in the number of cases of
respiratory illness (in all the five
cities) on an annual basis by 2002 compared to the early 1990s. The levels of
sulphur dioxide (SO2) also declined during the same period. However
SPM levels remained steady, implying against a backdrop of falling RSPM levels
increasing concentrations coarse particulate matter, which is indeed
surprising.
It is generally agreed that all cities will gain substantial
health benefits from fallen RSPM reductions to or even below the current
national annual standard of 60 ug/m3 for residential areas, which
may be achievable in Chennai and Hyderabad
in the medium term. However, bringing the RSPM levels down to this standard is
clearly a long-term target for Delhi
and Kolkata, according to the World Bank study.
The potential benefits would still be very high; it may save
as many as 10,000 lives every year in these two cities alone. It may be
mentioned here that a significant number of people, specially in Kolkata live
in the pavements and their exposure to air pollution continues to be very
dangerous.
The nature and magnitude of emission
of emission vary between cities.
While in Mumbai there has been reduction in RSPM and SO2 levels in
industrial areas, in Delhi
and Kolkata the mixed land-use pattern challenges the current practice of
having different National Ambient Air Quality Standards within a city. However cleaner fuels (like the introduction
of CHG in Delhi)
and improved technology along with stronger and better enforcement of
regulations is obviously the solution.
The need for immediate improvement in air quality in these
five cities can hardly be emphasized and lot of debate and discussion has been generated on this issue in recent years. Recently as per directives of
the Supreme Court draft action plans have been submitted by a number of cities.
Given that as per the Air (Prevention and Control) Act 1981 section 19 (1), State
Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) have the right to declare air pollution
control areas within its jurisdiction, the Central Pollution Control Board
(CPCB) is of the view that many more cities should take up the action planning
exercise in order to meet air quality standards as notified under the Act.
The increase in cardiovascular and other diseases, including
asthma, bronchitis and even lung cancer, has been on the rise and this needs to
be checked. As is well known, the oxides of sulphur and nitrogen cause
breathing problems while carbon monoxide hampers oxygen transfer in the body.
In the lungs, oxygen gets attached to the haemoglobin present in the blood.
When carbon monoxide is inhaled, it combines with
haemoglobin to form carboxyhaemoglobin. As a result, less
haemoglobin is available for transporting oxygen. This causes headaches and, in
extreme cases, death. Controlling the air quality is thus imperative at this
stage and the SPCBs and the CPCB should join hands to ensure that air quality
is closely monitored and necessary
standards maintained, as far as possible.---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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