Informatics Publishing Limited

Ayan Chandra ¹, Gaurav Saha ², Sayantan Goswami ², Anwesha Saha ², Soumi Sinha Roy ², Payel Ganguly ², Avishek Ghosh ², Kaveri Banerjee ², Radhika ¹, Arpita Banerjee ³, Arup Kr. Mitra ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Statistics, St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata-700 016, W. B., IN
2 Department of Microbiology, St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata-700 016, W. B., IN
3 Department of Respiratory Medicine, Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College, Kolkata, W.B., IN

Abstract

Kolkata is one of the most polluted cities of the world. The city has been plagued by one of the most prominent pollution problems of the of the world, the air pollution. The time period of 2000-2008 saw a huge number of vehicles hitting Kolkata's streets, which has lead to a significant increase in air pollution. Realising this, the Supreme Court has decided to impose a ban on the vehicles, which are more than 15-year old. The ban was imposed finally on 1^st August, 2009. It was thought that this ban would result in substantial reduction of pollution, but the reduction in SPM, RPM, SO_X and NO_X could not be achieved to the desired level. A statistical analysis through bar diagrams, box-plots and ANOVA was performed to compare the different type of pollutants to determine whether the ban on the old vehicles was effective or not. The winter season of the year 2010 saw the values of SPM (383.1 μg/m³) and RPM (184.4 μg/m³) returning almost to the same level as before the ban. In fact, the values went higher than the levels of 2008 (SPM - 302.4 μg/m³, RPM-145.3 μg/m³) and 2009 (SPM-334.3 μg/m³, RPM - 171.7 μg/m³). The values of SO_x and NO_x also increased indicating that the ban has not been able to handle the air pollution level of Kolkata. The air pollution has been a very potent disease causing agent. The main diseases caused by air pollution are generally respiratory diseases like asthma, restrictive lung disorder, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder), cardiovascular disease, and lung cancer. The survey of the three major hospitals in Kolkata shows that there is a huge number of patients being suffered by respiratory disorders during winter months, and the number seems to have increased after the ban has been imposed. The winter of 2010 saw 117 patients suffering from respiratory disorders as compared to the 114 in 2009 and 108 in 2008. The other diseases like cardiovascular diseases and lung cancer also had a higher number of patients in the winter of 2010 as compared to 2008 and 2009. Thus, it should be noted that the pollution has not been reduced at all by the ban. This may have occurred because the government or the officials were not able to impose the ban effectively.

Keywords

Old Vehicle Ban in Kolkata, Air Pollution, Respiratory Diseases, Lung Cancer, Cardiovascular Diseases.

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