ISLAMABAD: Taking notice of air pollution in the federal capital, Minister for National Health Services Aamer Mehmood Kiani on Sunday requested the Advisor to Prime Minister on Climate Change to carry out assessment of the quality of air.
“It is necessary to take measures to protect the health of residents of the federal capital,” the minister said in a statement.
He said global climate change and deteriorating of quality of urban air were major issues affecting the human health.
The health effects caused by air pollution, he said, included difficulty in breathing, wheezing, coughing, asthma and aggravation of existing respiratory and cardiac conditions.
Aamer Mehmood Kiani said the human health effects of poor air quality were far reaching, but principally the body’s respiratory system and the cardiovascular system were affected.
He said the declining quality of air was the biggest environmental issue in Islamabad.
Read More: Minister Ali Zaidi lauds anti-marine pollution initiative by Pakistan Navy
Accumulating evidence, Kiani said, indicated that air pollutants contributed to serious, even fatal, damage to the cardiovascular system.
He said smoking caused respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in the country. Urban air pollution was estimated to cause around 22,000 premature deaths among adults and 700 deaths among young children annually.
Indoor air pollution caused the deaths of more than 30,000 children per year, he added.
He requested to direct the EPA to extend their full support to the investigators of Health Services Academy, Islamabad.
