Srinagar, Dec 10: Around 10,000 people die in J&K every year for diseases which are attributable to air pollution, Director Sher i Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Dr Parvaiz Koul said on Saturday.
There is an urgent need to act and control it by countering it, he said.
While talking exclusively with the news agency Kashmir News Observer (KNO) on the sidelines of the launch of Doctors for Clean Air and Climate Action, J&K Chapter, he said that yearly around 10 thousand deaths are attributed to particulate matter 2.5 (PM 2.5) exposure and there is need to control it by countering it.
“Todays programme was intended to create awareness among public that air pollution issue is not only in Delhi and Maharashtra but also in J&K due to increasing number of vehicles, construction, brick kilns, cement factories which emit pollutants and significantly pollute our air and affect our health which makes air pollution a health issue”, he said.
“Our aim is to aware doctors with facts and figures and this message has to reach to masses as people generally treat advice of doctors as words of God. People must get information on how to decrease air pollution and how they can contribute in it,” Dr Koul added.
He said the measures which can contribute to decreasing air pollution include using fewer vehicles, decreasing the use of unleaded petrol, decreasing use of biomass fuels, less use of Kangri and using vented heaters.
He said air pollution is affecting every single organ of the body and ”we have to work to reduce the pollution.”
“Air quality index in Kashmir is gradually going into poor category, especially during winters and in the past few days AQI has gone from moderate to severe and there is need to intervene now”, he added.
“There is need to take initiatives like afforestation of Hari Parbat and Zabarwan hills in Srinagar so as to reduce the air pollution. Walking tracks have been constructed is also a good initiative as a part of Smart City Project and there is need to do more small steps so as control air pollution gradually,” he said.
—(KNO)
