Effectivity of Vehicular Banning and its Reflection in Disease Incidence in Kolkata

摘要

Kolkata is one of the most polluted cities of the world. The city has been plagued by one of the most prominentpollution problems of the of the world, the air pollution. The time period of 2000-2008 saw a huge number ofvehicles hitting Kolkata’s streets, which has lead to a significant increase in air pollution. Realising this, theSupreme Court has decided to impose a ban on the vehicles, which are more than 15-year old. The ban wasimposed finally on 1 st August, 2009. It was thought that this ban would result in substantial reduction ofpollution, but the reduction in SPM, RPM, SO X and NO X could not be achieved to the desired level. A statisticalanalysis through bar diagrams, box-plots and ANOVA was performed to compare the different type of pollutantsto determine whether the ban on the old vehicles was effective or not. The winter season of the year 2010saw the values of SPM (383.1 μg/m 3 ) and RPM (184.4 μg/m 3 ) returning almost to the same level as beforethe ban. In fact, the values went higher than the levels of 2008 (SPM - 302.4 μg/m 3 , RPM - 145.3μg/m 3 ) and2009 (SPM - 334.3 μg/m 3 , RPM - 171.7 μg/m 3 ). The values of SOx and NOx also increased indicating thatthe ban has not been able to handle the air pollution level of Kolkata. The air pollution has been a very potentdisease causing agent. The main diseases caused by air pollution are generally respiratory diseases likeasthma, 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 ofpatients being suffered by respiratory disorders during winter months, and the number seems to have increasedafter the ban has been imposed. The winter of 2010 saw 117 patients suffering from respiratory disordersas compared to the 114 in 2009 and 108 in 2008. The other diseases like cardiovascular diseases and lungcancer also had a higher number of patients in the winter of 2010 as compared to 2008 and 2009. Thus, itshould be noted that the pollution has not been reduced at all by the ban. This may have occurred becausethe government or the officials were not able to impose the ban effectively.