JUNE 20199the occasion of World Health Day revealed another scary statistic ­ Children born in South Asia, where pollution levels are much higher than those anywhere else in the world, will live almost 2.5 years less than those born in areas with bet-ter quality air. As if these figures aren't star-tling and shattering in equal mea-sure, health implications of air quality for adults are equally bad. At a worldwide level, deaths caused by stroke, lung cancer and heart disease among others were found to be connected intrinsically with the rising air pollution levels. India and China accounted for 1.5 million of these deaths. India has another peculiar problem that makes breathing good quality air even tougher ­ indoor air pollution. The use of outmoded methods of cooking which require burning of solid fuels as well as the use of burning cow dung, coal, wood, etc. for heating the house have made indoor air pollution as big a plague in the country as the pollution caused by road traffic. What can we do about it?The idea behind quoting all these numbers isn't to startle but to re-mind ourselves that it's time to take solid and sustained actions to curb pollution indoors and outdoors. China has shown us that controlling air pollution levels after they have spiraled into the danger zone is indeed possible. The Chinese gov-ernment has taken extensive ef-forts to bring down emissions from power plants, traffic, etc. which have helped the country's citi-zens breathe slightly better quality of air today. India, too, needs such steps to be undertaken if its citizens are to ever breathe clean air. Schemes such as the Household LPG pro-gram and Pradhan Mantri Ujjwa-la Yojana can have good effects in the long run if they are executed with devotion. There is also a larg-er need to bring air pollution into the election agenda and to shift fo-cus to it from other irrelevant and less pressing issues that only yield political gains. The state of India's air pollution affects each and every person residing in the country, re-gardless of their political leanings or religious beliefs, and, therefore, this matter must take center-stage at the earliest. At the household level, burning of biomass for heating or cooking must be disparaged with a great-er degree of severity. To keep our families safe in whatever way we can, all of us should opt for room or central air purifiers, especially for those spaces where our chil-dren and/or our older parents re-side. However, a longer term and more effective solution is to move into buildings that come fitted with air purifying technology. Many top builders of the country are offering residential and commercial spac-es that are equipped with central air cleaning systems that are best suited for large spaces and are way more effective than small room pu-rifiers. These systems protect your people and your assets by eliminat-ing dust, airborne microbials and cancer agents with remarkable ef-fectiveness. They also regulate car-bon-di-oxide levels so that occu-pants can breathe clean air which eventually leads them to feeling better, more energetic and much healthier over a long term. A blend of government initia-tives and widespread awareness on an individual level can indeed bring about a change in our coun-try, the way it has yielded effects in China. While we must push gov-ernments to tackle the air pollution crisis head on for us, and we must vote responsibly, we must also take concomitant steps inside our own homes and offices that can cre-ate a better quality of life for our loved ones, our employees and other assets. At a worldwide level, deaths caused by stroke, lung cancer and heart disease among others were found to be connected intrinsically with the rising air pollution levels. India and China accounted for 1.5 million of these deaths Himanshu Agarwal
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