Burdens of bad air

While we do well in air quality monitoring, there is a gap in our mitigation measures.

Air pollution has plunged the world into a global public health crisis, and Nepal is no exception. The air we inhale for survival is one of the leading causes of illness, as reported by The Lancet , a medical journal. Respiratory diseases like pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease have become all too common now. Besides these, ulcers, lung and intestine cancer, kidney diseases, heart problems, and so on are attributed to bad air. The vulnerability of children, women, the elderly and underrepresented groups to air pollution adds to the urgency of its mitigation.