Assessment of Air Quality and Respiratory Health Status within an Institutional Area

The present study was carried out to assess air quality and respiratory health status at Delhi University. Delhi University is an open campus and surrounded by commercial areas, residential, traffic intersection and major road network which are probably the main source of air pollution in this campus. The pollutants considered for this study were four criteria pollutants (NO2, SO2, PM10 and PM2.5) along with pulmonary function test for diagnosing any obstruction caused by air pollution. Sampling site has been monitored for 4 hours basis at Department of Environmental Studies within 2 months (February and March). Temporal and Spatial variation of pollutants was performed by Excel, Air quality index was computed by mathematical equation established by EPA and pulmonary function test was conducted by using spirometer as tool. The results revealed that a fine and coarse particulate matter concentration was 2.56 times higher than permissible limit established by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in India. Apart from this finding, NO2 and SO2 concentration in this University remain under permissible limit. Among 50 students participated in pulmonary function test, the study has found 2% student has severe obstruction (FEV1/FVC, <=30 %< 50%), 20% students have moderate obstruction (FEV1/FVC, <=50 %< 80) and 78% have mild obstruction this could be because of long exposure to high concentration of particulate matter. Theogene Ingabire, Jean Paul Nkundabose University of Delhi, Department of Environmental Studies, University Road, Faculty of Science, University Enclave, Delhi, 110007, India University of Rwanda, College of Science and Technology, Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatics Engineering, P.O. Box 3900, Kigali, Rwanda Submission: 23 December 2019 Accepted: 29 December 2019 Published: 30 January 2020 www.ijsrm. humanjournals.com Citation: Theogene Ingabire et al. Ijsrm.Human, 2020; Vol. 14 (3): 23-33. 24 INTRODUCTION Air pollution is defined as any biological, chemical and physical substances that may present in an atmosphere in such concentration that it may degrade and deteriorate quality of air and is harmful to the living organisms and surroundings. Air pollution has become very serious challenge global, regional and local public health problem after industrial revolution. High demand of energy in Industries, domestic and transportation system are the main source of air contamination (Chaloulakou et al., 2003). Most major cities (like Delhi) around the world experience periods of elevated air pollution levels, based on National Air Quality Standards (Kumar et al., 2015). Long and short exposure to air pollutants can affect human health in different ways leading to the increase of morbidity and mortality rate. Today, air pollution is the largest environmental risk factor (WHO, 2014). It is estimated worldwide 3 million people die annually prematurely from lung cancer, cardiovascular, respiratory diseases, although Western Pacific and South East Asia are the most affected and 799000 deaths are estimated to occur South Asia alone (WHO, 2016). In Delhi, 7350-16200 premature deaths due fine particulate matter were estimated in 2010 (Guttikunda and Goel, 2013). Nitrogen oxide, Sulphur dioxide, Particulate matter, Ozone and Carbon monoxide are the major pollutants responsible for short term and long-term effects such as respiratory problems, premature deaths, eyes and throat irritation and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease etc (Ghorani-Azam et al., 2016). Many research works were taken place in major parts of the world to address this issue and to spread awareness to the public of air pollution and health impacts. The major source of these pollutants are the local activities including Transportation, burning fossil fuel, mismanagement of wastes, construction activities and majorly dispersion of pollutants coming from neighboring regions through meteorological phenomena including wind movement (Zhang et al., 2015). Air pollution is a global problem that imposes massive economic and social external costs at local, regional and global scale (Patankar and Trivedi, 2011). However, studies on air pollution and human health has increased over the years but research on institutional air quality and its effect on students’ health is still scanty. The institutions’ performance are the main driver and indicator of development of any nation where the workers and academicians and students spend at least 5 days per week to fulfil their responsibility, therefore, they require proper physical environment such good quality of air to perform their task properly. Earlier study has already shown that students’ absence rates were found to be higher in schools with poor air quality than in schools without such problems (Mendell et al., 2013). If the youths in developing countries hold such inferior www.ijsrm. humanjournals.com Citation: Theogene Ingabire et al. Ijsrm.Human, 2020; Vol. 14 (3): 23-33. 25 health status, the social and economic development of that nation is more questionable. Thus, it is important to study the quality of air within institutional areas and what are their effects on the academicians and students health so that necessary steps can be taken for awareness and improving the quality of life. The present study, therefore, evaluates respiratory health status in institutional area and also monitors the criteria pollutants such as SO2, NO2, PM10 and PM2.5. MATERIALS AND METHODS