Mask force: Protection from dust and smoke

While the first thing you might buy after purchasing a two-wheeler may be a helmet, another accessory is slowly becoming just as necessary — a face mask, to protect yourself from the constant dust and smoke that’s around you in traffic. “Vehicles emit a lot of particulate matter and not just from the tyres but from exhausts, and these aren’t generally monitored. Most of it is lead particulate matter, and because the roads are frequently dug, soil and dust particulates are also mixed with them,” says Dr D. Narasimha Reddy, Convenor — Joint Action For Water and an environmentalist.

Known as Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM), Dr Vijay Kumar Chennamchetty, a consultant pulmonologist at Apollo Hospitals, says that about a third of disability associated with stroke — in developing countries — is linked with SPM and air pollution. These include higher blood pressure, and heart and lung diseases. “In the urban particulate cloud, there exists up to size of 1.0 lakh nm particulate per ml, in a gravimetric concentration of 100-200 micro gm/m3. These ultra fine particles, once they reach alveoli (the basic lung unit), are capable of releasing inflammatory mediators into the circulation in susceptible individuals. Thus, air pollution can give rise to increased blood pressure, exacerbation of lung diseases and cardio vascular problems like heart attacks and brain strokes,” he adds.

And while wearing masks can help reduce the health risks that SPM brings, Dr Narasimha says that long term solutions like more greenery, decreased vehicular congestion and more open spaces are required to be present in Hyderabad’s city planning. There are also other risks that we need to be wary of, adds environmentalist Prof. K. Purushottam Reddy: Toxicity in the air — “Hyderabad is surrounded by chemical industries and the emissions in the atmosphere are always above the permissible limit. The emerging morbidity profile over the city is horrible. The higher number of cancer cases here is mainly because of this toxicity,” Prof Purushottam says, adding that industrial areas such as Jeedimetla can get as bad as “gas chambers”.