Doctors declare health alert in Kolkata on National Pollution Day
Kolkata/UNI: On the occasion of National Pollution Day, eminent doctors and health experts came together, to raise the red alert and share alarming data and facts on the issue of air pollution in the city at a press conference here on Monday.
They addressed the citizens about the health emergency due to air pollution and rising incidences of respiratory cases in the city.
Eminent doctors, air quality experts and environmentalists came together under the banner of Kolkata Clean Air, claiming there is a health crisis unfolding in the city of joy due to air pollution.
Speaking at the event, Dr Suman Mallik, Medicine, Clinical Director, Chief of Radiation Oncology, Narayana Super Speciality Hospital said that air pollution is one of the major health threats in the world. It is fifth most causal factor of mortality. It is a major threat for acute and chronic respiratory illness, higher cardiac morbidity, increased incidence of cancer, genetic changes especially in children.
The situation is so alarming that today every child born in any urbanized and industrialized city of India smokes as many as 10-12 cigarettes a day through the pollutants present in the air.
Air pollution is the single largest threat to human health globally and is responsible for 6.4 million deaths per year (1 in 9 deaths). This is three times higher than the number of deaths from AIDS, Malaria and tuberculosis combined.
India has the highest pollution-related deaths, according to the Lancent Report.
While Delhi is considered the most polluted city in the world, but the experts were quick to point out that Kolkata’s air is just as bad as Delhi’s air quality.
Kolkata PM10/PM2.5 concentration throughout 2018-19 does not abide by WHO’s prescribed limits and Air Quality Index (AQI) does not conform to Central Pollution Control Boards(CPCB) prescribed limits.
During the winter of 2018-2019, Kolkata air was worst among metro cities with106 sever to poor air quality days and only 5 satisfactory air quality days.
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