Bhubaneswar: A global study states that with 23 lakh premature pollution-related deaths every year, air pollution alone kills around 12.4 lakh, India remains worst-affected by pollution.
The world is currently progressing in an unsustainable way of development in such a way that it injects diverse detrimental and toxic materials into our environment from various sources.
As a consequence, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the soil on which we grow our food and the noise we hear, everything gets polluted causing diverse health disorders and diseases.
The pollutants in the form of gases, particulate matters, heavy metals, effluents and high decibel noise often cause enormous health problems.
Further, our lifestyles have undergone radical transformations that create the risk of developing major chronic illnesses like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. All these reduce the life expectancy and culminate in premature death of many.
To highlight these findings, the Orissa Environmental Society (OES) and the Regional Science Centre (RSC), Bhubaneswar jointly organised a programme to observe the World Health Day.
The theme for this year chosen by the World Health Organization was ‘Our Planet, Our Health’, which aims to add quality to the health of earth so that we can live a disease-free life.
The chief guest at the event was a renowned neurosurgeon, Dr Ashok Kumar Mahapatra, former director of AIIMS Bhubaneswar and Vice-Chancellor of SOA University.
Highlighting the present health scenario and the Covid pandemic across the globe, Dr Mahapatra narrated how increased pollution of air, water and soil was culminating in enhanced occurrence of various infectious and non-infectious diseases.
He said: “Our cities are progressively changing into the most polluted human habitations, infusing illness among people. We have to exhibit our commitment to upholding the quality of our environment and combating the causes of ailments.”
Chairing the programme, OES president Sundara Narayan Patro stressed on spreading awareness and initiating action programmes for protecting the environment.
RSC coordinator Soumen Ghosh opined that humanity would survive on earth as long as we took care of nature and behaved as responsible components of our planet.
OES secretary Jayakrushna Panigrahi spoke on the deteriorating environmental quality and its rising impact on human health.
On the occasion, Bharat Panda of Brahmapur was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the environment betterment.
PNN
