PUBH6002: Environmental Health Report on Air Quality in Delhi

This report examines the impact of air quality on public health, focusing on Delhi, India, as a case study. It explores both indoor and outdoor air quality, highlighting the influence of environmental factors, governmental policies, and global agencies like the WHO. The report delves into the effects ...Read More

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Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................2
Selection of geographical area..................................................................................................2
Understanding the influence of environmental factors on public health on local and global
levels................................................................................................................................................2
Management of the environmental health issue.........................................................................3
Influence of different agents mitigating challenges on environmental health......................3
Environmental factors influencing public health.......................................................................4
Sustainable development...........................................................................................................5
Ethical consideration in environmental protection policies and practices...............................5
Critical analysis of environmental impact on global health and its management...................6
Suggestions to address gaps in current policy, regulation and management for
environmental health issue............................................................................................................7
Conclusion......................................................................................................................................7
Reference list..................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Human beings are in constantly interacting with the environment by any means that is producing
an impact on their health. Sometimes the interaction results in an adverse effect on public health
if environmental conditions are not monitored properly. It is observed that human behavior and
actions are equally responsible for affecting the environment on a global level. Environment
quality is compromised if there is toxicity in the air or natural resources are pressurized. Indoor
and outdoor air quality has been chosen as an environmental health issue for this project. This
research project will focus on the impact of air quality on public health of Delhi, a metropolitan
city in India. This project will also throw light on initiatives taken by governmental bodies to
mitigate the challenge of getting affected by diseases on the globalized level.
Selection of geographical area
In order to study the outdoor and indoor air quality Delhi in India is chosen because the air
quality is a great concern for people living in the city.The city has extremes of climatic
conditions in summer and during winter. The air quality is affecting public health living in that
and adjoining city. However the local governing bodies are always working on projects to limit
air pollution following the guidelines of WHO. So WHO will be the main agency in this project
to focus the practices and legislations This project will also talk about the air quality of global
level to make an easy comparison.
Understanding the influence of environmental factors on public health on
local and global levels
It is very difficult to ignore the effects of air pollution completely living in a city. Outdoor Air
contains micro pollutants that penetrate deep inside the human system affecting them with

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diseases such as sneezing, asthma and other lung infection (Frumkin, 2016). If one considers
local level in Delhi, it is observed that more than 85% of the population of Delhi affords a
personal car. The young professionals or students use their own shooting as a means of local
transport. All the vehicles, as a result, make air pollution through smoke emission. All the
pollutants and aerosols accumulate in the air and migrate to large distance causing an
environmental issue on a global level. The outdoor air quality is thus said to be compromised and
the pollutants get settled anywhere on the ecosystem indirectly affecting natural resources
(Hanson & Gluckman, 2015).
Management of the environmental health issue
Influence of different agents mitigating challenges on environmental health
 Key agencies
On the global level, there are different agencies coming up with initiatives in order to mitigate
challenges created on human health due to environmental action (Hamilton & Safford, 2019).
WHO has collaborated with multiple partners to convey the global conference on air pollution
and health organized in Geneva, Switzerland. The purpose of the conference was to create public
awareness regarding the risk factors involved in air pollution.
 Institutional structure
In order to improve air quality, the institutions and organizations are installed with filters that
would filter the polluted air inside. Some of the institutions of Delhi have installed a sensor that
detects the danger level of pollutants generated (Agnihotri et al., 2016).
 Political process
There were several meetings held showing concern for global warming and the impact on health
where political jurisdiction of validating an environmental issue was addressed. A number of
policy makers participated in the decisions making to construct strategies practicing of which
would reduce health risks from environmental issues (Heacock et al., 2015).
 DPSEEA framework

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The world health organization illustrated that there are 6 components of environment health
factors describing the ways each component affects environment on public health. This frame
work particularly focuses public health so that measures can be taken for prevention of diseases.
The components can be classified into driving force, pressure, state, exposure, effect and action.
Figure 1: DPSEEA framework
Environmental factors influencing public health
As per the data gathered by the International energy agency 2017 it is noted that a number of
people lack access to proper indoor infrastructure to prevent the disease from air pollution. It is
identified that gathering fossil fuel leads to musculoskeletal damage as well as put children at
risk of physical limitations. As opined by Jogerst et al. (2015) among 8 billion people 4.5 million
people die every year prematurely due to suffering from cardiovascular failure as a result of

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consuming toxic air. As noted by ecologists in Delhi, Production of ozone from big transport
vehicles causes lung disease in children at the same time cause acid rain in the environment.
WHO has set the mean value of 100 micrograms per meter cube for 8 hours. The legislations
implemented to follow were Air Pollution control Act 1995 and Air Act of 1955.
 Identifying vulnerable groups
The vulnerable groups that aid the air quality are ozone, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen mono oxide
and sulfur dioxide.
Sustainable development
Any kind of environmental health issue is a big threat for human health; therefore, the United
Nations has laid down some of the sustainable development objectives that are aimed to reduce
environmental air pollution (Skolnik, 2015). The sustainable health issues are also a kind of
management practice that restores environmental quality. However, in Delhi, with the rising
concern for human health, the main emphasis on sustainable development was to make
improvements in transport by increasing fuel efficiency. Instead of using an open fire for
cooking purpose sonar haters are encouraged.
Ethical consideration in environmental protection policies and practices
There are a number of ethical challenges faced by public and governmental bodies due to
different sources of air pollutants (Friis, 2018). In the case of smocking, it is observed that the
nonsmoking individual is inflicted with pollutants with no compensation for health compromise.
Along with this the active smoker also pollutes the environment. However, it becomes difficult
to detect all the sources since every individual is responsible to pollute the environment by some
means so it goes against ethical percepts (Ishitsuka et al., 2017).
Industrial operations release a huge quantity of undesirable substances in the air no matter how
improved technologies are installed. As per Sutherland et al. (2016), life will come to halt if
there are no industries for manufacturing and production. All governmental legislations and
policies will be applicable here knowing multi-stakeholders have a large profit margin with
government and these industries.

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Critical analysis of environmental impact on global health and its
management
Air pollution can be classified into two categories outdoor and indoor that compromises the air
quality. Outdoor air pollution is referred to as ambient air pollution whereas indoor air pollution
is referred to as household air pollution. Indoor pollution is generally caused due to the
combustion of fuels such as kerosene and wood. Indoor air quality is also affected by poor
ventilation or using open fires such as stove or burning of charcoal. The remote places of Delhi
still sticks to the traditional methods of burning charcoal for cooking. The pollutants created
inside move to the exterior environment producing an adverse effect on public health. According
to Gauthier et al. (2015), indoor air which has been converted to toxic forms has killed more than
4 million people if considered globally. It is also noted by Giles-Corti et al. (2015) the
modernized technologies of metropolitan cities such as Delhi that are used on the daily basis of
electricity and cooking add more pollutants to the indoor air and people spending a maximum of
the time working with these technologiesare affected.
As in the case of outdoor air pollution or ambient air pollution, air consists of particulate matter
that is mixed with solid and liquid contaminants called aerosols. These aerosols are added to the
air by poisonous gases emitted from vehicles. The toxic gases contaminating outdoor air quality
are nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and ozone (Willox et al., 2015). The smog undergoes
chemical reaction on the action of sunlight and affects public health. Unconsciously people
inhale a large quantity of the toxic components that results in diseases such as asthma, hives,
whooping cough and respiratory disorder.
Governmental organizations such as WHO supports the global countries by providing technical
support by their own scale-up measurements. WHO has implemented several strategies
installation on which has improved the lives of people. WHO has distributed the clean household
energy solution toolkit as per WHO guidelines the tool help global countries identifying their
stakeholders (Raghupathi, Sharma & Joshi, 2018).
WHO has produced guidelines for air quality mentioning limits for exposure It has also created
health assessments and directed pieces of evidence that link a type of air pollution to a specific

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disease (Sutton et al., 2019). It has developed tool such as Air Q that analyze health issues with
HEAT tool for accessing the intervention of walking.
Suggestions to address gaps in current policy, regulation and management for
environmental health issue
 Government can implement strategies to monitor public transport emissions through
satellite action that might reduce the gap in pollution control
 The concerned authorities should investigate whether commercial organizations and
houses follow necessary installations to reduce air pollution for instance, WHO has set
mean value for every pollutants in in Air pollution Control Actand Clean Air Act that has
to be strictly followed by citizens
 The local governing bodies should organize programs to restore air quality such as
making people participate in afforestation programs which will be a good initiative in
reducing the gap between environmental management and implemented policies.
Conclusion
Many global countries follow guidelines to limit the production of greenhouse gases in order to
combat the environmental issue of global warming. In local levels such as Delhi, it is observed
that governmental bodies laid down protocol and taken initiatives to educate the mass for
safeguarding environment. Foreign countries such as Japan adopted the Kyoto protocol that
aimed towards reducing carbon emission. Today the treaty has been signed by many other
countries. On the other hand, the United States has implemented a practice of cap and trade that
follows cap limitations for individual pollutants exceeding which penalize the person. The air
quality can easily be restored by bringing modified changes in daily life and follow regulations
for protecting the environment.

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Reference list
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Friis, R. H. (2018). Essentials of environmental health. Jones &bartlett learning.
Frumkin, H. (Ed. 3rd). (2016). Environmental health: from global to local. John Wiley & Sons.
Gauthier, S., Bernier, P., Kuuluvainen, T., Shvidenko, A. Z., &Schepaschenko, D. G.
(2015).Boreal forest health and global change. Science, 349(6250), 819-822.
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(2017). Japan Environment and Children’s Study: backgrounds, activities, and future
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Jogerst, K., Callender, B., Adams, V., Evert, J., Fields, E., Hall, T., ...& Simon, L. (2015).
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