Air pollution taking toll on public health

The emission of huge quantities of black smoke from brick kilns adjacent to the residential areas causes irreparable damage to the environment and public health due to the negligence of the authorities concerned. The photo was taken from Mollarhat of Keraniganj on Friday. — Md Saurav

People in Dhaka and other areas of the country are increasingly facing health risks due to air pollution since the authorities have not taken effective action to stop its sources.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University respiratory medicine professor Mohammed Atiqur Rahman said that air pollution was directly responsible for respiratory diseases while aggravating many other diseases and increasing the co-morbidity of patients.

Asthma, pneumonia, tuberculosis, bronchitis, skin diseases, diarrhoea, and eye conjunctivitis are among the diseases triggered or aggravated by air pollution, he said.

‘Everyone is affected by air pollution to some extent,’ he said.

The National Institute of Diseases of the Chest and Hospital Director Khairul Alam said that the number of patients with air pollution-related diseases was on the rise, along with their severity.

According to the hospital data, a total of 176,441 patients received healthcare in the specialised hospital and research centre in 2023, and 1,046 of them died while undergoing treatment.

In 2022, a total of 947 people died in the hospital, while 162,780 people received healthcare.

Public health experts said that air pollution was linked to roughly half of the premature deaths in Bangladesh.

A global study released in August 2023 by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago found Bangladesh’s air to be the most polluted globally, gravely impacting citizens’ health and reducing average life expectancy by at least 6.8 years.

MH Choudhury Lelin, a medicine specialist at Health and Hope Hospital, said that when heavy metals prevalent in polluted air mix with blood and carry carcinogenic elements, they cause many health problems, including heart attacks.

‘If we consider the direct and indirect impacts of air pollution, this will be the top cause of premature deaths in the country,’ he said.

He said that air pollution reduces people’s immunity, leading to their deaths from  simple health problems.

Meteorologists said that different parts of Bangladesh experienced a cold wave for at least 21 days in January.

Public health experts said pollution usually remains high in the winter, causing more respiratory and diarrheal diseases.

More than 100 people died of winter-related diseases between November 15 and January, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.

A World Bank report in March 2023, titled Striving for Clean Air: Air Pollution and Public Health in South Asia, said that air pollution was responsible for about 20 per cent of the total premature deaths in Bangladesh.

In another report released in 2022, the global lender said that air pollution caused 78,145 to 88,229 deaths in 2019 in Bangladesh, the second-biggest cause of death and disability.

According to the daily Air Quality Index report published by the Department of Environment, healthy air was not found in any of the 13 cities or districts in January.

Dhaka’s AQI remained above 200 in January, along with Chattogram, Khulna, Gazipur, and Cumilla.

AQI between 201 and 300 is considered very unhealthy, and above this, it is hazardous. AQI below 50 is healthy, according to the DoE.

Air quality in Narayanganj, Mymensingh, and Rangpur was reported to be hazardous most of the days in January.

The Centre for Atmospheric Pollution Studies founding director and Stamford University Bangladesh’s environmental science department chairman, Professor Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumder, said that air pollution in Bangladesh had been increasing instead of reducing.

‘Compared to 2022, overall air pollution in the country increased by 12 per cent in 2023,’ he said.

He said that the AQI average in the country was reported to be above 200 during the dry season between November and March.

He said that, among other sources, brick kilns, construction sites, transboundary pollution, cooking, and vehicles were major sources of pollution in the country.

‘The environment department has improved its monitoring system over the years but has hardly done anything to reduce pollution,’ he said.

DoE director for the air quality control unit Ziaul Haque said that the sources of pollution had been identified and the government was working to reduce pollution from all sources.

‘Pollution reduction is not possible by the DoE alone; it is a collective issue,’ he said.

He said that the new environment minister declared a 100-day plan of action, including demolishing 500 brick kilns, to improve air quality.

In December 2022, the World Bank approved a fund of $250 million for a project titled Best (Bangladesh Environmental Sustainability and Transformation) to provide LPG gas cylinders to people still using wood for cooking.

The five-year project is expected to be completed by 2028, Ziaul said.

The government had set a target to bring the use of bricks in public works to zero by 2025, but having failed to make significant progress in this regard, the deadline was extended until 2029.

He said that DoE shut down many brickfields, but again, they returned to operation because of the lack of monitoring by the local administration and continuing pollution.