Air pollution & lung diseases: Experts say Centre’s claims not true

Bengaluru: Proving the BJP-led central government’s claims that there is no evidence or data that links air pollution and lung diseases critically false, several medical doctors and researchers said that there is a lot of data available globally that shows a direct and strong association between the two, The Wire reported.

Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, Kriti Vardhan Singh, claimed recently that there are no such data or evidence. He told the parliament so in a written reply to a question on December 18. According to him, there is “no conclusive data” to establish a “direct correlation between higher AQI levels and lung diseases”.

But experts say, the said association is a fact, and air pollution can also cause other serious health issues.

According to one pulmonologist’s statement to The Wire, a study conducted by AIIMS and published in 2002 in the Indian Journal of Chest Disease and Allied Sciences showed that the number of emergency visits increased during times of higher air pollution. He said that the majority of patients, due to air pollution, suffer from sneezing, COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease], asthma, etc.

Another more recent AIIMS study between 2017 and 2019 and published in 2023 found a “significant association” between concentrations of air pollutants (NO2, PM2.5, and CO) and emergency visits for all acute respiratory symptoms in adults, too, The Wire reports.

Children are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of air pollution due to airway size and other factors, Dr Naveen Thacker, executive director of the International Pediatric Association and a member of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics, told The Wire.

Air pollution is a systemic toxicant and affects not only the lungs, but also impacts birth, said another expert.