Minister pleads for joint bid to curb air pollution

PATNA: State health minister Mangal Pandey has pleaded for collaborated efforts by different government departments to take preventive and corrective measures to curb

air pollution

.


Addressing a ‘Doctors’ Dialogue’ jointly organized by the

Centre for Environment and Energy Development

(CEED) and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences-Patna (AIIMS-P) at a city hotel on Tuesday, the minister did not deny that the government and different NGOs had not been able to do the required level of work to curb pollution.

“Forests, transport, road construction, education and health department officials as well as representatives of different NGOs should sit together and hold deliberations on ways to control pollution,” Pandey said.

Bihar State Pollution Control Board (BSPCB)’s chairman Ashok Kumar Ghosh, who was the guest of honour at the event, claimed, “Three more air pollution monitoring stations will be set up at random locations near hospitals, academic institutions and industrial areas in the next three-four months. For now, the BSPCB and the

Asian Development Research Institute

have installed seven low-cost monitors in the city.”

At present, there is only one continuous ambient air quality monitoring station near the Indira Gandhi Planetarium.

Ghosh also urged the doctors to conduct studies on air pollution and monitor its impact on people’s health on a regular basis.

CEED’s chief executive officer Ramapati Kumar brought to light the need to adopt a collaborative approach to deal with the impact of pollution on people’s health. “There is lack of relevant data on the impact of pollution on health in the public domain. Our aim is to compile scattered information, which is available in plenty, and help the government frame an air pollution control policy,” he said.

A panel of experts, including medical practitioners and academics, discussed the hazards of air pollution on health and recommended ways to deal with them.