The entire world is in the grip of pollution. The terrible situation of air pollution in 15 cities of the world and 18 cities of South Asia has surprised everyone. Every year, more than 60 lakh people die due to poor air quality across the world. Air pollution causes many fatal diseases like asthma, cancer, heart disease and lungs. Research by scientists at the University of London has revealed that the number of deaths due to air pollution is continuously increasing. This is a matter of serious concern. The number of deaths due to air pollution in developed cities of South Asian countries has crossed 1.5 lakh. Scientists have expressed fear that millions of people living in 18 cities in the tropical region of Asia may die prematurely due to air pollution.
Based on the data collected from NASA, researchers have held PM 2.5 responsible for deaths due to pollution in addition to pollutants like nitrogen dioxide, ammonia, carbon monoxide. According to scientists, the amount of PM 2.5 in cities like Delhi including Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata is in a very serious situation. If the same situation of air pollution continues in the coming six decades, then more than 10 crore people will lose their lives prematurely. It is noteworthy that in 2005 alone, there were 1.5 lakh deaths in South Asian cities and about 53 thousand deaths in South-East Asian cities due to prolonged exposure to PM 2.5. India is facing a loss of Rs 114 trillion every year due to air pollution. If proper efforts are not made to improve air quality soon, human life will be in danger. Last year, in the World Air Quality Report of Swiss organization IQ Air, India was declared the most polluted country in the world in 2022. At that time, 39 out of the 50 most polluted cities in the world were from India. According to international standards or guidelines, there is pollution in our cities much more than the limit. Now even villages are not untouched by this. There too, steps should be taken towards reducing air pollution. Often efforts to reduce pollution are made in cities only. The plans that are made are also city centric. Whereas they should expand to villages. What should happen is that whether it is a state, a metropolis, a city, a town or a village, they should decide according to their situation how much pollution they have to reduce and by when, so that people can breathe easy.
No one, child, old or young, has been saved from the dangers of air pollution. Apart from becoming a threat to the brain development of children, this pollution is also causing rapidly increasing asthma in them. If the air quality does not improve soon, asthma in children will take a dangerous form. Research by Dr. Matthew Altman of Seattle University of Washington has revealed that children’s respiratory tract is swelling due to air pollution. The muscles around it are contracting. They quickly get filled with phlegm and adequate amount of air is not able to enter the respiratory tract. Research has found that fine particles of smoke and dust present in the air are proving dangerous for children. Its biggest impact is on those children who live in less developed urban areas or backward areas. An analysis of the vision, memory and visual processing of 215 children conducted between October 2017 and June 2019 by John Spencer, a professor at the University of East Anglia, revealed that cognitive problems in children are linked to poor air quality. Harmful fine particles present in the air enter the brain and cause damage to it. Long term negative impact on a child’s brain affects his life. Cognitive problems caused by poor air quality are at risk for children under two years of age. This is the time when the process of child’s brain development is at its peak.
It is wrong to say that measures are not being taken to reduce air pollution. Air pollution is not reducing because whatever efforts are made to reduce pollution, they focus only on PM particles. They do not contain ozone, nitrogen and other pollutants. Whereas these should also be included. Apart from this, implementation and monitoring of the scheme at the ground level is also very important. Where and how much work was done in the survey, whose role was played in reducing pollution and to what extent and what was the percentage of success and failure in it should also be assessed. Collaboration of researchers should also be taken in this entire process. Public participation is also necessary to reduce air pollution. Without this the hope of success is meaningless. (These are the personal views of the author.)