BHOPAL: The residents of eight districts of Madhya Pradesh are very highly vulnerable and 17 are highly vulnerable to respiratory illness and cardiovascular diseases due to air pollution.
This was stated by Dr Rajashree Bajaj, the state nodal officer of National Programme for Climate Change & Human Health, in a virtual media organised by Unicef Madhya Pradesh on International Day of Clean Air for Blues Skies observed on Monday.
She made a presentation on challenges of air pollution and with a call to create awareness about pollution and deaths due to air pollution – impact on respiratory illness and cardiovascular diseases among adults, women and children.
Citing different sources of her claim like district composite vulnerability data, Centre on Climate Change, state environment department, she said eight districts are very highly vulnerable, 17 are highly vulnerability, 11 are moderate, 11 are low in vulnerability while three are in very low vulnerability category.
She added that one of the challenges of indoor pollution is chulah using fire wood and is one of the main causes of respiratory ailments. In the state, households using clean fuel for cooking, the state average stands at 29.6 %. Dindori is at 4.0 % while Bhopal at 84.9 %. Unicef health specialist Dr Vandana Bhatia spoke on effect of air pollution on children. Unicef communication specialist Anil Gulati coordinated the meet.
