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<keyword id="22976106" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="indoor" source="keywords">Indoor</keyword> <keyword id="19900550" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="air-pollution" source="keywords">air pollution</keyword> is a bigger <keyword id="21117961" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="health-risk" source="keywords">health risk</keyword> than <keyword id="20543591" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="outdoor" source="keywords">outdoor</keyword> air pollution in India, and sometimes cities are cleaner than nearby villages where <keyword id="22976772" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="household-pollution" source="keywords">household pollution</keyword> is higher, according to the country's two top policy experts. Addressing the India <keyword id="20445293" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="clean-air" source="keywords">Clean Air</keyword> Summit (ICAS) 2024, Principal Advisor, <keyword id="19904190" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ministry-of-Health-and-Family-Welfare" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Ministry of Health and Family Welfare" meta.hostid="83" meta.entityid="Ministry of Health and Family Welfare">Ministry of Health and Family Welfare</keyword>, Soumya Swaminathan said, "Studies done in Delhi have shown that women's average exposure to high levels of <keyword id="20827287" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="black-carbon" source="keywords">black carbon</keyword> (women <keyword id="19895006" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="WHO" source="keywords">who</keyword> are mostly at home) is as much as auto-rickshaw passengers going around outdoor exposed to the ambient air pollution in Delhi, resulting in high systolic blood pressure." "Cities contribute less than 20 per cent to the overall state emissions, wherever they have been assessed, but household emissions predominate, ranging between 20 per cent and 40 per cent. Across the country, we are seeing is that sometimes cities are cleaner than the surrounding villages where household air pollution predominates," she said at the summit organised by think-tank Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy. This builds a strong case for expanding the scope of India's National Clean Air Programme (<keyword id="20133150" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="NCAP" source="keywords">NCAP</keyword>), which currently focuses on non-attainment cities. Air pollution is a major threat to public health and contributes to a significant amount of morbidity as well as mortality. Apart from PM2.5 and PM10, short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon, methane, ozone, and hydrocarbons have the potential to harm the environment and warm the atmosphere even more than CO2. Black carbon can cause chronic respiratory illnesses, lung cancer, emphysema, pneumonia, asthma, heart disease, and low birthweight. "In terms of reducing our life expectancy, globally, PM2.5 is contributing to about 2.3 years of life lost. Just below that is tobacco. In fact, there's so much attention on tobacco and global frameworks for control, but not the same level of attention has been paid to PM2.5 and certainly not the same level of commitments," Swaminathan said. The impact of air pollution is not limited to public health but has a significant economic cost as well. Recently, the World Bank published a study highlighting that air pollution has resulted in a loss of around USD 8.1 trillion in 2019, which is 6.1 per cent of the global gross domestic product (GDP). "We are always talking about air pollution as a problem but studies also show a strong economic case for action on clean air. There are significant positive consequences to investing in cleaning up the air in terms of the return on investments. We know air pollution is not just bad for our health, but it's also bad for agriculture, because it reduces the sunlight that's reaching the crops and it's bad for our economy or any country's economy as it deters people from coming and living or visiting those places," Swaminathan added. Kalpana Balakrishnan, Director, WHO Collaborating Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, said that the main barrier to shifting to clean cooking fuels that can help reduce household air pollution levels is finance. "If we give free LPG to women for two years, they are unlikely to shift back to biomass cooking even if you remove the subsidies," she said. Through Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) launched in May 2016, more than 100 million households in India received LPG cylinders by the end of March 2023. Studies shows over 50 per cent of the households that received new LPG cylinders under PMUY did not choose to refill it even once. Around a third of the world's population - 2.4 billion people globally (including 500 million people in India) - still lack access to clean cooking solutions. Although the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MOPNG) claims that the country's household LPG "coverage" stands at 99.8 per cent, the National Family Health Survey conducted in 2019-21 (NFHS-5) shows that 41 per cent of the population still cooks on biomass.

Indoor air pollution poses greater health risk than outdoor: Experts

Adequately spaced pregnancies can significantly improve maternal and <keyword id="22472928" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="child-health-outcomes" source="keywords">child health outcomes</keyword>, Union Minister Anupriya Patel said on Friday, underlining that this also reduces risks and empowers women to make informed choices about their <keyword id="20548742" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="reproductive-health" source="keywords">reproductive health</keyword>. "The government's efforts have resulted in reduction of <keyword id="20741690" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="maternal-mortality" source="keywords">maternal mortality</keyword> from over 130 to 97 per one lakh births," the minister of state for health said and also highlighted the efforts taken by states to involve men in <keyword id="19943279" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="family-planning" source="keywords">family planning</keyword>. Patel held a meeting with public health experts as part of a series of programmes to observe the World Population Day. The theme of the meeting was "Reaching the Last Mile for Ensuring Healthy Timing and Spacing between Pregnancies: Issues and Challenges." The minister said the government has always been conscious of these issues. "The launch of initiatives such as the <keyword id="22472929" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Pradhan-Mantri-Surakshit-Matritva-Abhiyan" source="keywords">Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan</keyword> (PMSMA), extended PMSMA, identification of high-risk pregnancy in PMSMA, Anemia Mukt Bharat Abhiyan and the Post-Partum Family Planning Programme (Post-Partum IUCD and Post Abortion IUCD) are some examples of the government's commitment to the cause," she said. Patel also underscored the importance of an effective communication strategy. "The task of achieving Viksit Bharat (developed India) by 2047 cannot be done without empowering our women. Healthy timing and spacing between pregnancies are very important for women's health," she said. Additional Secretary and Mission Director NHM at the health ministry, Aradhana Patnaik, highlighted that India has already achieved a total fertility rate (TFR) of two with 31 states and Union territories achieving the replacement level. There is a need for an effective strategy to bring the TFR under replacement level in the remaining five states, the minister said. Patel said that "we would be able to reach the last mile" by empowering the youth, addressing challenges of equal participation of men and women, increasing couple communication, learning from best practices, taking cues from current and historical trends in family planning data and expanding the contraceptive basket of choices. She also stressed on identifying and mapping regions, districts, and blocks with data of issues such as low uptake of <keyword id="22472930" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="family-planning-services" source="keywords">family planning services</keyword>, low demand for modern contraceptives and high unmet needs, and saturating them with services and enhanced social and behaviour change communication.

Healthy timing, spacing between pregnancies crucial for women's health: MoS Patel

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Indoor air pollution poses greater health risk than outdoor: Experts

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Healthy timing, spacing between pregnancies crucial for women's health: MoS Patel

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