Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Bangladesh - Health threats from air pollution

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Bangladesh - Health threats from air pollution

    Health threats from air pollution

    A REPORT in this paper on Saturday quoting the participants at an international seminar on air pollution informed that in Dhaka city alone air pollution on average, annually, leads to some 74,000 cases of bronchitis, about 70 million cases of restricted activity days, 14,000 cases of respiratory diseases-related hospital internment, over 286,000 emergency room visits, about 2.8 million cases of asthma attacks and over 220 million respiratory illnesses related symptoms days. The costs of treatment and work losses from sicknesses due to air pollution from the above have been estimated conservatively at Taka 134 billion a year.

    For a brief period after the withdrawal of the very polluting three-wheeler autorickshaws from the city, the air quality improved somewhat. But there has been only regression over the last couple of years. Dhaka is going back to its unwanted status as the city with the worst air pollution in the world. The figures point to the very urgent necessity of strong enforcement of existing laws and regulations against air pollution as it has become a very dangerous concern from the standpoint of public health. Those who spend money privately to treat pollution-related sicknesses are far greater in number, they could certainly spend the same better on useful and productive purposes if they faced no requirement to spend it on such medical care.

    Law against the polluters should be enforced strictly and extensively on a regular basis. There is an urgent need to decommission aged buses and trucks that seem to be eluding official instructions through repainting to look younger and managing papers from the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) to the effect that they are still roadworthy. The polluting vehicles will have to be detected and stopped from plying in the city.

Working...
X