Soon, an app to measure impact of air pollution on health

An evidence-based approach to show the connection between health problems and air pollution was necessary to bring serious changes in policy, said health practitioners from reputed institutes on Wednesday. Experts at the India Clean Air Summit said that they are developing an app to measure how air pollution is causing health issues among people.

Dr Rahul Patil, a cardiologist from Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, said an alarmingly high number of young people have been affected by heart diseases in the last 5 years.

"About 30% of the patients facing cardiac issues are auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers. This can be attributed to the impact of air pollution on health. We are developing an app to measure the amount of exposure, including lack of physical activity and dietary timings, in vulnerable population," he said.

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He was speaking at the India Clean Air Summit organised by Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy. The session on 'The Number Game - Putting a number on our losses' saw health practitioners throwing light on the significant gaps in the policies looking to combat air pollution.

Dr Ramachandran Thiruvengadam, Department of Biochemistry, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, said comprehensive and good quality data was necessary. He also noted the importance of going beyond the PM 2.5 and PM 10 to study the health impact of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide.

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Prof Ravindra Khaiwal from the PGIMER said experts need to overcome the challenges posed by the lack of data and difficulty in conducting trials to establish impact of air pollution on health.

Dr Harsha Salve, from AIIMS New Delhi, said the direct links between deaths and air pollution needs to be communicated. "Awareness has to be created about the short and long-term impacts of pollution, especially among vulnerable communities," Salve said.

Dr Basha Khan, director of Lung-Transplant at Narayana Healthcare, said better coordination among institutions and policymakers was necessary to combat climate change.