8/12/2019 the impact of pollution on health.docx

1/4

http://www.preservearticles.com/201106037503/sample-essay-on-the-impact-of-pollution-on-health.html

Sample essay on the impact of pollution on health

Should we pay an exorbitant price for progress? When we race ahead on the road to

material prosperity, are we not losing something in the bargain? Does man have the right to

destroy the pure environment God has given him? Can he go scot-free after undermining the

ecosystem that supports him? People the world over, including India, are learning the hard

way to find answers to these thought-provoking questions.

Our very survival is in danger if we seek to pollute the very world we are living in. Nature's

retribution could be all on a sudden as we saw in the case of the infamous 1984 Bhopal gas

tragedy or the slow death caused by pollution of air and water, pollution of land by the

accumulation of solid wastes and the noise pollution.

The magnitude of the Bhopal gas tragedy is often forgotten we fail to remember that this one

tragedy killed more people than all the industrial accidents, taken together, worldwide in the

20th century. But the scars of the greatest industrial pollution in history still remain to haunt

thousands of sufferers today.

Many of the survivors not only battle psychiatric problems, but a wide range of physical

disorders; the gases destroyed lung tissue the single biggest reason for death people could

not breathe any longer. Physical disability impaired their capacity to work and many suffered

eye damage. Next year we will be observing the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy,

but the victims are running from pillar to post for justice.

The Union Carbide and those responsible for the tragedy are still at large.

Those living in the big cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad,

Kanpur and the like might have to take a holiday in distant countryside to feel what

unpolluted air is all about. The cities have becomes too crowded with fumes from

proliferating automobiles and mushrooming factories and accumulating garbage dumps. And

most of the rivers have become sewers.

The drainage mains laid long ago have started overflowing with sewage and sullage entering

residential areas. And the noise pollution gets on your nerves. In such an environment,

health would be the worst casualty.

Things are no better in the villages. Solid waste is allowed to accumulate and fester for

months together and refuse of all kinds are eluding human excreta helps flies mosquitoes

and rodents as also other disease agents to thrive, passing on illnesses to man. Millions of

villagers are exposed to unsafe drinking water, giving rise to gastrointestinal disorders that

are the most important causes of illness and death an infants.

http://www.preservearticles.com/201106037503/sample-essay-on-the-impact-of-pollution-on-health.htmlhttp://www.preservearticles.com/201106037503/sample-essay-on-the-impact-of-pollution-on-health.htmlhttp://www.preservearticles.com/201106037503/sample-essay-on-the-impact-of-pollution-on-health.htmlhttp://www.preservearticles.com/201106037503/sample-essay-on-the-impact-of-pollution-on-health.htmlhttp://www.preservearticles.com/201106037503/sample-essay-on-the-impact-of-pollution-on-health.html

8/12/2019 the impact of pollution on health.docx

2/4

Every year, millions of people are stricken by mosquito and other insect-borne diseases

such as malaria, yellow fever and brain fevers caused by many different viruses. In addition,

trachoma (a cause of widespread loss of vision), worms and other parasites, fostered by

insanitary conditions, affect an entire village, reducing the work capital of able-bodied

citizens and lowering their resistance to other disease.

People in the big cities are being subjected to the effects of export to low levels of carbon

monoxide emanating from automobile exhausts over a long period of time. Because of

industrialisation people are export to a variety of chemicals. Some of these chemicals

accumulate gradually in the body and show their effects only when certain levels are

reached notable example is mercury.

The phrase "mad as a hatter" (the mad Hatter of Alice in Wonderland) owes to origin to the

fact that worker felt-hat factories of the 19th century were exposed to mercury compounds in

their work and were subject to neurotoxic effects. Many others eliminated or are detoxified

by conversion to harmless substances through metabolic processes in the body unless too

high a dose is absorbed.

Some authorities consider that over 80% of all cancers have their origin in environmental

insults, as from chemicals and viruses. So of these insults may have occurred many years

before the cancer developers.

At a public meeting organised in New Delhi sometime in November 1997, the late Anil

Agarwal, Director of the Centre for Science a Environment, New Delhi, disclosed that 'tiny

killers' were believed to killing 52,000 people prematurely in 36 Indian cities and that nobody

could apparently escape them. These tiny killers are nothing other than "tiny suspended

particulate matter" that pollutes the air over India's many cities.

Delhi may have more vehicles and may have earned the distinct as one of the most polluted

cities in the world, but Mumbai is not of behind. A report by an NGO, the International

Institute for Sustainable Future, says that air pollution levels in Mumbai have increased due

runaway industrialisation, endless increase in vehicles and the alarming rise in population.

Another NGO, the Save Bombay Committee, saysthat while 60% of the pollution is caused

by vehicles, while industry is responsible for 30% pollution. With a population of 15.6 million

and with as many as 7, 40,000 vehicles on its roads, Mumbai is ranked the 15th most

polluted city by the WHO. Around 4,500 tons of pollutant is released into the city air every

day.

The decay of Mumbai has been compounded by its inadequate road infrastructure and less

greenery; compared to Delhi, the city has only one-third of its greenery and much less road

length. In fact, there are only two main arteries for this bustling metropolis.

Thanks to the very heavy concentration of air pollutants like sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide,

carbon monoxide and particular matter, the citizens of Mumbai could be said to smoking 15

to 20 cigarettes each a day without ever using a cigarette. Around 13,000 people out of them

2,000 children suffer premature deaths because of air pollution.

8/12/2019 the impact of pollution on health.docx

3/4

There is an Air (Pollution Control) Act that expects industries to obtain pollution certificates

from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB). Legal action is taken by the Board

against those industrial units that flout the norms. But the industries know that they can get

the certificates from MPCB without any difficulty.

In its ruling on April 5, 2002, the Supreme Court of India observed that the Union

government seemed unwilling to accept the undoubted carcinogenic potential of automobile

exhaust emissions particularly that of the particulates characteristic of diesel engines. The

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in the September 2001 issue of its journal Parivesh

described the cancer causing properties of diesel exhaust particularly those of polycyclic

aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and nitro-PAH particulates. The mutagen city of these

compounds further increases when they undergo atmospheric transformation after they

leave the engine.

Amongst serious diseases in India that can be linked to atmospheric pollution are cases of

acute respiratory infection (accounting for 6% of deaths). Both these fractions are largest in

the world. Other ailments caused by air pollution are chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,

lung cancer, asthma, tuberculosis, cardiovascular disease and blindness.

Thanks to the persistent intervention of the Supreme Court most of the buses and three-

wheelers have switched over to CNG fuel that pollutes less. CNG has been introduced

partially in other cities like Mumbai and Baroda as fuel for motor vehicles replacing the diesel.

The recently introduced ethanol-petrol in a few selected States is also less polluting.

The year 2000 witnessed a battle royal between the industrial workers, supported by

politicians and those determined to enforce strict pollution laws in order to safeguard the

health of the citizens of the National Capital. The Supreme Court has been hearing cases

relating to pollution since 1985 and in 1996 it gave the authorities more than four years to

relocate polluting units and factories away from the city.

But even after the 1996 order, the Delhi Government issued as many as 15,000 new

licenses for industrial units in residential areas. While every effort should be made to

safeguard the interests of industrial workers as a result of re-location of -nits away from the

heart of the city, one cannot also ignore the health hazards to more than 10 million citizens

of Delhi.

Air pollution from the a stories (in addition to vehicular emissions) and effluent discharges

into water bodies are rapidly taking New Delhi to the position of being the most polluted city

in the world. One estimate places the annual financial cost of treating pollution-related illness

in Delhi at as much as Rs. 5,000 crore while another estimates that close to two-thirds of

Delhi's population suffers from respiratory problems.

Most of our rivers are polluted beyond the point of saturation. The so-called Ganga Action

Plan initiated during the Rajiv Gandhi regime was called off midday because of

mismanagement and corruption. Gandhi continues to be polluted. So is the case with many

other rivers, big and small. On January 24, 2000, in a significant order affecting thousands

8/12/2019 the impact of pollution on health.docx

4/4

industrial units, the Supreme Court of India banned the discharge untreated effluents into the

Yamuna river in Delhi and Haryana.

A report file by the Central Pollution Control Board indicated that Yamuna water not fit for

drinking as it contained pollutants far in excess of the standard set for the worst quality of

drinking water. It was pointed out the court that the permissible level of coliform was 5000

per 100 ML, but Yamuna water was found to contain over 11 crore coliform at one point of

time of which 15 lakh coliform could be attributed to faecal matter.

No doubt, we have taken several measures to tackle pollution with the Central Pollution

Control Board and the State Pollution Control Boat constantly monitors pollution in different

countries. This apart, we have identified 24 critically polluted areas in the country for suitable

remedial action. But even with all this, there is no end to pollution that affects human health.

There is a great need for public vigilance and strict implement action of antipollution laws.

We need progress, but at the same, we cannot compromise with the health of the people.