AHEMADABAD: At an Ahmedabad-based
pulmonologist
and chest physician’s clinic on Friday, five of 10 patients were to see the doctor due to irritation in
respiratory
tracts caused by
dust.
Dr Gopal Raval explained just why. “While some had come for issues due to emissions from construction sites, others were living near the roads with high traffic volume and high concentration of dust particles in the air.
The primary sign of dust-related irritation is non-obstructive chronic bronchitis where the patients get a bad dry cough, which is not caused by any infection,” Raval said.
Ahmedabad is not alone in battling dust-induced health problems. A study by researchers from IIT Delhi and IIT Kanpur indicated that five states contributed to 60% of the country’s total dust emission in terms of both particulate matter (PM) 10 and 2.5.
The study prepared a “comprehensive particulate matter road dust emission inventory” for 2022 using the vehicle registration data from 1,352 RTOs in India. States such as Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat emerged as the predominant contributors to road dust emissions.
These states not only exhibit elevated silt loading (sL) values but also account for a substantial proportion (43%) of the total registered vehicles in India, underscoring the pressing imperative for effective mitigation measures, the study said.
The findings were published in Elsevier journal Science of the Total Environment in a paper titled “Fugitive road dust particulate matter emission inventory for India: A field campaign in 32 Indian cities”. Its authors included Arpit Katiyar, Diljit Kumar Nayak, Pavan Kumar Nagar, Dhirendra Singh, Mukesh Sharma and Sri Harsa Kota.
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