In the News
September 30, 2024
The Ministry of Health at Ramshahpath, Ministry of Health, placed an artificial lung on Chait 24, 2079. In that way, the main purpose of placing artificial lungs in public places was to measure the air pollution rate, alert the regulatory bodies of the state and make the general public aware.
When it was planned to keep it for a month for testing, it turned out to be muddier than expected and its shape was unrecognizable, so the ministry removed the lung, which was kept visible to anyone walking through Ramshahpath, within 15 days.
The same artificial lung revealed the extent to which the polluted air of Kathmandu valley is affecting human lungs. Which also indicated the health problems caused by polluted air. But the regulatory bodies are still not sensitive towards that disaster. Although artificial lungs indicate a possible disaster, the state has not yet started any concrete initiative to control pollution.
Co-spokesperson of the Ministry of Health Dr. Sameer Kumar Adhikari says, ‘That artificial lung brought the dangerous situation of air pollution in the valley to everyone. That lung was placed there so that everyone could easily know the state of air pollution. But the Ministry of Health is not the only agency working for air pollution control. We have shown the condition of the same lung in the video and are still harassing all the state agencies.’ He says that those who saw the infection in the artificial lung at that time could experience how terrible the effect of pollution is on human health.
That lung for awareness has been removed from there, but the government and policy makers have not learned the lesson from it, nor has the risk of pollution decreased so far. According to the ‘Air Quality Life Index-2024’ released last month, Nepal is the third most polluted country in the world. According to the report, 37 million Nepalis are breathing polluted air. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution is the second leading cause of human death. 99 percent of people in the world live in places with polluted air, and 8.1 million people die every year due to air pollution. 90 percent of them are from low- and middle-income countries.
Even in Nepal, about 50,000 people are dying every year due to air pollution. State of Global Air states that 19% of all deaths in Nepal are caused by air pollution. According to the Ministry of Health, 66 percent of deaths from chronic lung disease are caused by air pollution. Similarly, 34 percent of deaths from heart disease, 37 percent of deaths from stroke, and 22 percent of deaths from respiratory infections are caused by air pollution.
Right now, from the general public to the policy makers, Dr. Officials say. He says, “At present, air pollution is taken for granted by the general public to the policy makers. But actually it is very dangerous. Even if we look at the human damage caused by this, it is no less than an epidemic or a major disaster.’ According to the WHO, the amount of dust particles with a diameter smaller than 2.5 micrometers per cubic meter of air should not exceed 25 per day and 10 micrograms per year. In Nepal, the air quality standard, 069, considers such dust particles to be up to 40 micrograms per day as a normal condition.
But Nepal’s sky has gone far beyond this standard of pollution. Not daily, but even at the annual average rate, Nepal has come out many times ahead compared to WHO’s standards. In 2023, the annual average index of Nepal reached 118 micrograms. That is why experts say that every time you breathe, you should think about air pollution control.