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STUDY ON THE AIR POLLUTION RELATED HUMAN DISEASES IN
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM CITY, KERALA
Bency,
K.T., J. Jansy, Babitha Thakappan, Bhajanlal Kumar, T.T.
Sreelekha, N.K.Hareendran, P.K.K.Nair & M. Krishnan Nair “A
Study On The Air Pollution Related Human Diseases In Thiruvananthapuram
City, Kerala” in Martin J. Bunch, V. Madha Suresh and T.
Vasantha Kumaran, eds., Proceedings of the Third International
Conference on Environment and Health, Chennai, India, 15-17 December,
2003. Chennai: Department of Geography, University of Madras
and Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University. Pages 15
– 22.
Abstract:
The environment is
an integral part of human life, the quality of which plays a critical
role in human health. Every component of the biosphere has its
own role in different types of epidemics. Though water and land
pollution is very dangerous, air pollution has its own peculiarities,
due to its transboundary dispersion of pollutants over the entire
world. Therefore the study on air pollution and related impacts
on human health have a special consideration today. Western countries
have conducted several studies in this area, but there are only
a few studies in developing countries like India. In this backdrop,
a study on air pollution and related problems in Thiruvananthapuram
city has been undertaken. The study area has been divided into
three zones namely, residential, commercial and industrial, based
on livelihood patterns in order to compare the health impacts
in different human activity areas resulting from various types
of pollution. The data shows an increasing trend in respiratory
diseases with decreasing air quality. The hospital records also
support the results obtained from the field study. The industrial
effluent gases and low indoor air quality plays a key role in
the industrial area, while vehicular pollution and congested housing
patterns are the main factors in other zones. The children and
elderly are the main victims of the respiratory diseases. This
may be because of the accumulation of air pollutants, which needs
an exclusive study to find out the root cause of the problem.
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