Seminar

Indo Norwegian Seminar on Indoor and Ambient Air Exposure of Fine Particulate and PAHs: Health Perspectives (June 24-25, 2005)

A project, "Indoor and Ambient Air Exposure of PAHs and Fine Particulate to Women and Children: Health Impacts in terms of Morbidity" has been completed under the aegis of Indo-Norwegian Programme of Institutional Cooperation (INPIC) by the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK), Kanpur, India, and the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), Kjeller, Norway. The Chest and Tuberculosis Department of GSVM Medical College, Kanpur was invited to assist in clinical tests and their interpretations. With the specific objectives to disseminate the project findings and to share the subject knowledge amongst wider scientific and technical community, IIT Kanpur and NILU, Norway organized a seminar on Indoor and Ambient Air Exposure of Fine Particulate and PAHs: Health Perspectives during June 24-25, 2005 at IIT Kanpur.

Conclusions of the Seminar

The levels of PM2.5 in urban areas are excessively high and the levels in the city exceed the US EPA air quality standard (65 ug/m3) by a factor of 4 to 5 at urban sites. Such high levels will have a definite negative impact on public health and that has been confirmed by this study.
There is a definite distinction between particulate pollution levels at urban locations and that at rural or cleaner institutional areas; urban pollution level being 2 to 4 times higher. The average population is performing at about 12-15% lower level than their expected levels of FEV1 and FVC.
The lung performance of rural population is better than urban population but nevertheless is below the expected normal values.
In urban areas, the findings of indoor and personal sampling (i.e. the air being inhaled by the people) indicate that it is the outdoor pollution (caused by motor vehicles, industry etc) that impacts the indoor air quality in the kitchen and bedroom resulting in no respite from pollution even while being indoors.
In comparison to Delhi and Mumbai, the levels of carcinogenic PAHs compounds were higher in Kanpur. The high levels of PAHs pose respiratory cancer risk in Kanpur that is higher than internationally acceptable risk.