Air Pollution: The Hidden Health Crisis in Urban Centers

Fine particulate matter becomes a novel and invisible epidemic in large cities, which threatens people’s health. Highways, automobile industries, construction sites, and buildings release pollutants in the form of particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxides (NO₂), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), and carbon monoxide (CO).

Effluents here are related to one or the other health complications that can range from respiratory disorders to cardiovascular diseases and even life prematurity. Exposure of people to polluted air for a long period increases their vulnerability to developing long-term diseases, including asthma, bronchitis, and lung cancer.

The sick, the elderly, children, and people with other underlying ailments are highly vulnerable during this period. Air pollution also puts additional pressure on health care services, thereby increasing the cost of treatment and time lost to illness. According to WHO, it is known that outdoor air pollution is responsible for causing millions of deaths every year, which puts it among the leading threats to people’s health in the sphere of the environment.

However, air pollution does not garner as much concern as other health problems, though it greatly affects the quality of human lives; hence, it is a ‘silent’ killer. This crisis calls for legal measures to regulate emissions effectively, for the advancement of clean energy products and for raising the awareness of the population.

Appropriate urban development and management strategies of transport systems play pivotal roles in the environmental health and betterment of life of urban dwellers.