PRINCE KUMAR
Ranchi, April 7: Almost 99.9% of people are affected in some or the other way due to air pollution and there are certain ill effects of air pollution that even doctors don’t know about. RIMS Director Dr Kameshwar Prasad stated this during a medical student training workshop organised by SwitchON foundation under the ‘Clean Air Medical Student Ambassador Programme’ at RIMS, Ranchi.
Dr Prasad said that nearly 13 people die every minute due to air pollution and nothing much is done to control this situation. “All of us have to rise and do something to spread awareness among the people and the policymakers so that we and our future generation get a clean and friendly environment for survival,” he added.
He also said that due to air pollution a lot of children are being affected which hinders their brain development. Pollutants that are less than 2.5 macron enters the brain which causes Neuroinflammation and causes huge public health problem.
“There are certain diseases such as Autism where we do not even know the cause may be due to the air pollution which hinders the developmental stage of a child,” Dr Prasad added.
The primary idea behind the programme was to motivate, educate and engage the medical students with their patients, fraternity members, the general public and policymakers on the health impacts of air pollution.
Students from RIMS, Ranchi took part in this workshop along with eminent doctors including Dr Atri Gangopadhyay, Dr Vidyapati and Dr Devesh.
Over 99.3% of India’s population breathes polluted air that is above the standards set by WHO. According to the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI), an average Indian could increase life expectancy by 6.3 years, if the WHO guidelines on air quality are met. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation has called ‘Air Pollution the New Tobacco’. It is one of the major factors contributing to climate change which is declared as code res by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Speaking on the occasion, Deepak Bars, Senior Project Manager, SwitchON Foundation Jharkhand said, “The primary objective of the programme is to create a group of future medical practitioners who would learn about the relevant issues of air pollution and create awareness, thus enabling necessary policy action and citizen empowerment across.”
He also said that the informal sector which manages the toxic wastes of our cities and deals with exposure to air pollution while they work is known to use rudimentary methods with little or no protection against health and environmental hazards. These communities often sift through waste at dump yards before it is treated and live in the vicinity of dumpsites to obtain a livelihood. Many work as street vendors and transporters exposed to fossil fuels emission with no solution at their disposal.
“They typically lack access to sanitary and health care facilities. Furthermore, child labour is quite prevalent with low life expectancy. Sadly waste pickers and menial workers are not covered under any labour legislation. As a result, they do not benefit from social security and medical insurance schemes,” he added.
He further said that due to the poor living and working conditions, malnutrition, anaemia and tuberculosis are common among them. Also, exposure to various hazardous fumes at disposal sites results in respiratory problems. Notably, the prevalence of dyspnea (difficulty in breathing) and chronic cough are higher among waste pickers.
“This interaction has been seen as a way to enable medical students to evaluate the important understanding of the state of health of these impoverished of the society and develop further research ideas,” he added.
