HKH conference on air pollution starts in lalitpur

Lalitpur, June 13

With the aim of building a platform for stakeholders from the Hindu-Kush Himalaya region to share and enhance knowledge on air pollution and health, a two-day regional workshop on 'Air Pollution and Health in Nepal and HKH' kicked off here on Thursday.

It is also expected that the workshop will promote further collaboration and research related to air pollution and health impacts in the HKH region.

"The objectives of the programme are gathering existing knowledge and health within Nepal and facilitating south-south learning from elsewhere in the Hindu-Kush Himalaya region, identifying research gaps in air quality and health in Nepal and build future collaborations with likeminded people," said the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the organiser of the event.

Addressing the workshop, Dr. Om Prasad Kurmi, Professor at the Population Health Research Institute at the McMaster University in Canada, said that ventilation reduced the risk of major cardiorespiratory diseases, but the risk was still significant.

He said that the household air pollution was an independent risk factor to major cardiorespiratory outcomes.

"There is a dose-response relationship between duration of exposure to the household air pollution and major cardiorespiratory diseases. Switching to clean fuel reduces such risks," he said.

According to him, the government of Nepal should conduct study to measure whether the improved cookstoves have significant roles in improving public health. He also suggested to promote the use of clean fuel such as electricity. "There must be a concrete plan for the transition from solid fuel to cleaner fuel," said Dr. Kurmi.

Siva Praveen Puppala, an Aerosol Scientist at the ICIMOD, said that the workshop has brought together medical practitioners, atmospheric scientists, sociologists and policymakers from across the region to discuss and communicate the current scientific consensus on air quality and the health impacts of air pollution.

"Although air pollution has caught the attention of the public and policymakers, a considerable gap still exists in the general understanding regarding the health impacts of air pollution in the HKH region, considering the wide range of air pollution sources, pollution transport, exposure patterns, and the region's complex geography," he said.

According to him, the lack of coordination among different organisations working on similar air pollution-related research is a significant problem.

The University of Nottingham is partnering with the ICIMOD in organising the workshop.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 14 June 2019.