Environmental Problems In Air Pollution

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INTRODUCTION The essential characteristics of the internal environment must remain within certain limits to be compatible with the maintenance of life. A complex relationship exists between meteorology, air pollution and associated human health outcomes. Recently published report indicated that the number of the people suffering from lung cancer have increased to 10-11 from 8 people per one lac of the population in New Delhi (SAFAR, ITM, New Delhi). The growth in civilization and industrial activities has caused a number of environmental problems. For decades, large quantities of pollutants have been discharged into the environment irresponsibly. Pollutants are matter of a great concern not only due to their increased level but also due to…show more content…
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared air pollution the world’s single largest environmental health risk and attributed around seven million deaths globally to air pollution in 2012 (WHO, 2014 http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases). The Global Burden of Disease 2010 report estimated that ambient particulate matter (PM) air pollution accounts for about 6% of global deaths (IHME 2013; Lim et al 2012). The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified outdoor air pollution as a Class-I carcinogen, as it is linked over 220,000 lung cancer deaths per annum globally (Straif, 2013). According to Pollution index (2015) of cities across the world, Kabul, Afghanistan raked first with pollution index of 110.34 followed by Chongqing, China with 109.77, Kathmandu, Nepal with 101.38 and Kanpur, India with 100.63…show more content…
Environmental Performance Index study has revealed that India officially has the “worst air pollution in the world, even more than China, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh”, and ranks last in terms of ambient air quality among all 170 countries where survey has been done (Hsu, 2014). According to World Health Organization (WHO), India has high environmental disease burden, with a significant number of deaths annually associated with environmental risk factors (WHO, 2009). Ambient air pollution is considered as the fifth largest killer in India (GBD, 2010). Household and ambient air pollution (AAP) together constitute the single greatest risk factor for adverse health outcomes in India (GBD, WHO, 2010; Balakrishnan, 2014). In India, exposure to particulate matter contributes to over 100,000 premature deaths annually. Apart from this, high levels of atmospheric air pollutants result in over 48,000 new cases of bronchitis every year and approximately 370,000 hospital admissions (Mani, 2012). According to data from Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), 77% of Indian urban agglomerations exceeded National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for PM10 in 2010 (NAAQS, CPCB,

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