Union Minister for Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Dr. Harsh Vardhan inaugurated a Workshop on environmental health, as part of the Clean Air Campaign. It was deliberated and recommended at the Workshop that the number of PM2.5 monitoring stations need to be expanded and a group of experts including the concerned ministries may meet once a month in MoEF&CC to deliberate on the environmental and health issues and may issue health advisory, as required. Environmental health subject may be included in medical curriculum for all medical colleges.
It was further discussed that rampant use of the face masks without medical advice/special needs should not be encouraged. Similarly, it was also recommended that the use of air purifiers can be helpful only in specific situations and is not a substitute to mitigation at source. The Workshop examined various assessments on impact of air pollution on health and concluded that these should be seen as estimates to inform policy making.
National and international agencies such as World Health Organisation (WHO), World Bank, European Union, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), AIIMS, Safdarjung Hospital, National Centre for Disease Control, The Energy Research Institute (TERI), Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH), Indian Medical Association and medical experts from various premier medical institutions attended the workshop.
The ‘Clean Air for Delhi’was launched on February 10, 2018jointly bythe Central Government and the Government of Delhi to address all sources of pollution in Delhi. The campaign will last till February 23, 2018.