Air pollution biggest health crisis since Covid: Doctors

New Delhi: Air pollution is arguably the biggest public health crisis India has faced since the pandemic and will continue to worsen each year unless urgent action is taken, a UK-based Indian-origin pulmonologist warned, noting that a looming tsunami of airway disease remains largely underdiagnosed and untreated.

Speaking to PTI, multiple senior doctors practising in the UK asserted that a vast, hidden burden of undiagnosed airway disease is "building beneath the surface" and its incoming wave will exact a heavy, lasting toll on Indian citizens and its healthcare system.

Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari admitted that nearly 40 per cent of the pollution in Delhi is caused by the transport sector due to dependence on fossil fuels, while emphasising the urgent need for cleaner alternatives, and pushing for the adoption of biofuels.

"The Indian government's renewed focus on controlling air pollution is necessary and overdue. However, it is time to confront an uncomfortable truth: for millions living in North India, the damage has already been done. What is currently being managed represents only the tip of the iceberg. A vast, hidden burden of undiagnosed airway disease is building beneath the surface,"

Consultant Pulmonologist in Liverpool and a former Covid-19 Advisory Committee Member of India's Health, Manish Gautam, said. According to Rajay Narain, Honorary Cardiologist at St George's University Hospital in London, there is "overwhelming scientific evidence" linking air pollution to a range of diseases, including cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological and systemic, and any delay in addressing the issue will add to the health and economic burden.