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Air pollution over Kathmandu. Picture from www.nepalmountainnews.com
Source publication
The Nepal Health Research Council and recent National Health Policy of Nepal (2014) have included ‘air pollution’ as a priority research/public health agenda that is guaranteed by the Constitution. There is an urgent need to organise the future policies and actions to ensure the commitments to reduce air pollution.
Citations
... The prevalence rate of cardiovascular disease is high in Nepal, but no studies show the association of disease with air pollution [12].According to the Department of Environment, the Nepal government has set up nine monitoring stations in Kathmandu Valley for measuring air quality with varied parameters. The monthly average quality was much higher than Nepal's and WHO's air quality standards [11][12]. ...
... The prevalence rate of cardiovascular disease is high in Nepal, but no studies show the association of disease with air pollution [12].According to the Department of Environment, the Nepal government has set up nine monitoring stations in Kathmandu Valley for measuring air quality with varied parameters. The monthly average quality was much higher than Nepal's and WHO's air quality standards [11][12]. However, these stations are insufficient to determine the valley's air quality. ...
Air pollution has led to significant health problems affecting millions of people. It has frequently been
demonstrated to be a severe issue as the hawkers have to stay several hours a day on the roadside with
heavy traffic flow, resulting in high exposure to air pollutants. The high intensity of exposure rate
resulted in higher health risks to varied diseases with a lack of appropriate adaptive measures. Across-
sectional study was conductedamong207 streethawkers at alength of 1.79 km, including the main road
and link road of 100m around the Gongabun metro-bus park sector. Primary survey datawascollectedbya
structuredquestionnaire. Data wasanalyzed with the SPSS package and Microsoft Excel tool. Many of the
hawkers (95.7%) had knowledge about air pollution and its causes, but the level of practice needed to be
improved. There was no significant relationship between knowledge and practices (p-0.485 and p-0.626).
It was inferred that street hawkers’ knowledge had not been transformed into their behavioral practice.
There was a significant relationship (p-value 0.038) between exposure period and diseases. Most hawkers
(51.7%) had health issues related to air pollution. Out of 207 sampled hawkers, only118 wear masks, and
others have not adopted any measures for their protection. Health problems were observed even in mask
users due to the poor quality of masks. The findings suggest that awareness concerning personal
protective equipment (PPE), such as mask use, needs to be delivered among street hawkers with the
support of the local government and private sectors. An air quality monitoring station must be installedin
bus park premises to monitor air quality effectively.
Keywords: Pollution, Hawkers, Respiratory disease, Monitoring
... The prevalence rate of cardiovascular disease is high in Nepal, but no studies show the association of disease with air pollution [12].According to the Department of Environment, the Nepal government has set up nine monitoring stations in Kathmandu Valley for measuring air quality with varied parameters. The monthly average quality was much higher than Nepal's and WHO's air quality standards [11][12]. ...
... The prevalence rate of cardiovascular disease is high in Nepal, but no studies show the association of disease with air pollution [12].According to the Department of Environment, the Nepal government has set up nine monitoring stations in Kathmandu Valley for measuring air quality with varied parameters. The monthly average quality was much higher than Nepal's and WHO's air quality standards [11][12]. However, these stations are insufficient to determine the valley's air quality. ...
Air pollution has led to significant health problems affecting millions of people. It has frequently been demonstrated to be a severe issue as the hawkers have to stay several hours a day on the roadside with heavy traffic flow, resulting in high exposure to air pollutants. The high intensity of exposure rate resulted in higher health risks to varied diseases with a lack of appropriate adaptive measures. Across-sectional study was conductedamong207 streethawkers at alength of 1.79 km, including the main road and link road of 100m around the Gongabun metro-bus park sector. Primary survey datawascollectedbya structuredquestionnaire. Data wasanalyzed with the SPSS package and Microsoft Excel tool. Many of the hawkers (95.7%) had knowledge about air pollution and its causes, but the level of practice needed to be improved. There was no significant relationship between knowledge and practices (p-0.485 and p-0.626). It was inferred that street hawkers' knowledge had not been transformed into their behavioral practice. There was a significant relationship (p-value 0.038) between exposure period and diseases. Most hawkers (51.7%) had health issues related to air pollution. Out of 207 sampled hawkers, only118 wear masks, and others have not adopted any measures for their protection. Health problems were observed even in mask users due to the poor quality of masks. The findings suggest that awareness concerning personal protective equipment (PPE), such as mask use, needs to be delivered among street hawkers with the support of the local government and private sectors. An air quality monitoring station must be installedin bus park premises to monitor air quality effectively.
... Among other pollutants, particulate matter (PM), PM 2.5, and PM 10 are particles of great significance [5,7]. The concave shape of the Kathmandu valley traps air inside, leading to pollution [8,9] that affects public health [10,11,12], the ecosystem [13], and climate change [14,15,16]. Although the COVID-19 lockdown temporarily reduced PM emissions [17,18], Kathmandu was still ranked as the 10th most polluted capital city globally in 2020, according to a report by IQAir [19]. ...
... The wavelet coherence spectrum is used to measure how coherent the cross-wavelet transform is in time-frequency space [60]. Grinsted et al. [65] have defined cross wavelet coherence spectrum as: (11) Here, S is the smoothing operator and is given by [65]: (12) where and represents smoothing along the wavelet scale axis and smoothing in time. The wavelet coherence value around 1 shows a greater similarity between the time series, whereas coherence near 0 shows no relationship [70]. ...
... It infers that AQI (PM 2.5 ) had its minimum yearly average value in 2020 and maximum in 2018. Thus, air pollution was higher in 2018, and it was much improved in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced pollutants emission [10,11]. ...
In this study, wavelet analysis and traditional cross-correlation analysis (TCA) have been employed to explore the temporal characteristics of the Air Quality Index (AQI) (PM2.5) and its relationships with meteorological factors, air temperature, and rainfall in the capital city of Nepal, Kathmandu, during 2017 - 2020. The temporal variation of monthly averaged (AQI) (PM2.5) revealed that the air quality was unhealthy in winter, improved in summer, and subsequently became unhealthy again in autumn and spring. We also noticed that the lowest AQI (PM2.5) was recorded in 2020, which is due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. By analyzing the time-frequency relationship of (AQI) (PM2.5) with air temperature and rainfall, using Cross Wavelet Transform (XWT), we observed the interannual, seasonal, and monthly common periodicity between them. The coherency of XWT is then tested by using Wavelet Transform Coherence (WTC), which showed a negative correlation of AQI (PM2.5) with rainfall and air temperature, while an anomaly was seen among AQI (PM2.5) and temperature as they were positively associated for a few months in 2017, 2018, and 2020. Moreover, the results of cross-correlation and multiresolution analysis (MRA) are consistent with wavelet analysis, indicating the driving effect of air temperature and rainfall on (AQI) (PM2.5).
... 29 With rapid urbanisation in Nepal, the use of motorised vehicles has increased from nearly 224 000 in 1990 to 1.3 million in 2012. 30 The high rate of deaths in Nepal might be because of failure to effectively regulate air pollutants and ineffective implementation of air quality control measures. 30 We found poor concordance between the point prevalence and death rates attributable to COPD when the regions were ranked. ...
... 30 The high rate of deaths in Nepal might be because of failure to effectively regulate air pollutants and ineffective implementation of air quality control measures. 30 We found poor concordance between the point prevalence and death rates attributable to COPD when the regions were ranked. For example, although high income North America had the highest point prevalence for COPD for death rates, it was ranked eighth. ...
Objective
To report the global, regional, and national burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and its attributable risk factors between 1990 and 2019, by age, sex, and sociodemographic index.
Design
Systematic analysis.
Data source
Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.
Main outcome measures
Data on the prevalence, deaths, and disability adjusted life years (DALYs) of COPD, and its attributable risk factors, were retrieved from the Global Burden of Disease 2019 project for 204 countries and territories, between 1990 and 2019. The counts and rates per 100 000 population, along with 95% uncertainty intervals, were presented for each estimate.
Results
In 2019, 212.3 million prevalent cases of COPD were reported globally, with COPD accounting for 3.3 million deaths and 74.4 million DALYs. The global age standardised point prevalence, death, and DALY rates for COPD were 2638.2 (95% uncertainty intervals 2492.2 to 2796.1), 42.5 (37.6 to 46.3), and 926.1 (848.8 to 997.7) per 100 000 population, which were 8.7%, 41.7%, and 39.8% lower than in 1990, respectively. In 2019, Denmark (4299.5), Myanmar (3963.7), and Belgium (3927.7) had the highest age standardised point prevalence of COPD. Egypt (62.0%), Georgia (54.9%), and Nicaragua (51.6%) showed the largest increases in age standardised point prevalence across the study period. In 2019, Nepal (182.5) and Japan (7.4) had the highest and lowest age standardised death rates per 100 000, respectively, and Nepal (3318.4) and Barbados (177.7) had the highest and lowest age standardised DALY rates per 100 000, respectively. In men, the global DALY rate of COPD increased up to age 85-89 years and then decreased with advancing age, whereas for women the rate increased up to the oldest age group (≥95 years). Regionally, an overall reversed V shaped association was found between sociodemographic index and the age standardised DALY rate of COPD. Factors contributing most to the DALYs rates for COPD were smoking (46.0%), pollution from ambient particulate matter (20.7%), and occupational exposure to particulate matter, gases, and fumes (15.6%).
Conclusions
Despite the decreasing burden of COPD, this disease remains a major public health problem, especially in countries with a low sociodemographic index. Preventive programmes should focus on smoking cessation, improving air quality, and reducing occupational exposures to further reduce the burden of COPD.
... In one survey conducted in Nepal in 2007 was shown that household air pollution was over 18-folds higher than the WHO recommended guidelines 18 . Particularly women and children living in rural regions are exposed to indoor air pollution. ...
Background: The relevance of the obstructive lung diseases asthma and COPD and IgE-mediated allergy in Nepal is still poorly characterized. Method: In a cross-sectional study in rural Nepal 199 persons were characterized with a questionnaire, skin prick tests, spirometry and total IgE concentration in serum. Results: About 20% of the women and 50% of the men were current smokers. Half of the study population used biomass fuel at home to cook or to heat and 70% of the study participants experienced dust-exposure at work or at home. 50% of the women and 30% of the men had a history of COPD, while 57% of the women and 53% of the men had symptoms of respiratory allergy. 18% of the women and 16% of the men used inhaler devices. 62% of the women and 66% of the men had a total IgE concentration in serum >100 IU/mL. About 30% of the women had a FEV1 < 80% and about 10 % had a FEV1 < 40%, also 30% of the men had a FEV1 <80% but none of the men had a FEV1 <40%. The FEV1/VC ratio was smaller than 70% in 13 % of the women and 14,6% of the men. We observed a significant inverse correlation between serum IgE with FEV1. 14% of study participants had positive prick test for house dust mite, 5% were positive for cat dander and 3% were positive for mugwort. Conclusion: In summary this study shows an relevant burden of obstructive pulmonary disorders and IgE-mediated allergy in a rural Nepalese population.
... In addition, the city is frequently struck by various environmental disasters from flooding, landslides, and earthquakes, the last major earthquake in 2015 (Khatakho et al., 2021). Various studies have investigated aspects of environmental health issues in Kathmandu (Pant, 2009;Kurmi et al., 2016;Thapa et al., 2019;Chauhan et al., 2021). However, no studies so far have investigated environmental inequalities between different areas or socio-economic groups. ...
... Nevertheless, the subjective perspective on environmental inequalities adds to the existing scholarship on the topic as it allows the consideration of the social dimension of urban sustainability (Chiarini et al., 2020). This is particularly relevant because other studies on environmental health issues in Kathmandu (Kurmi et al., 2016;Thapa et al., 2019;Chauhan et al., 2021) all make use solely of objectively measured data. With respect to urban environmental quality, van Kamp et al. (2003) even argue that the objective environment is less important than the perception of this environment. ...
Environmental health inequalities in cities of the Global South are hardly studied up to now, though they are expected to increase due to rapid urbanization and motorization taking place in many of these cities. In this study, environmental inequalities in the city of Kathmandu, Nepal for the years 2013 and 2021 are analyzed. The goal of the study is to determine the degree of environmental inequalities and their changes over time. The study examines horizontal and vertical inequalities in access to drinking water sources, air and noise pollution exposure, and health effects based on self-reported household data. Results show statistically significant environmental inequalities between neighborhoods in Kathmandu regarding access to basic water infrastructure, air and noise pollution exposure, and resulting health effects. Inequalities between socio-economic groups are not significant. Over time, the perceived exposure to air pollution has increased, mainly due to increased motorized traffic, whereas vertical inequalities persisted. While inequalities between socio-economic groups have not increased, the high socioeconomic group reveals more concerns and awareness about environmental burdens than the low socioeconomic group. In conclusion, given the intertwined horizontal and vertical inequalities, any planning response action needs to consider the population's vulnerability to target interventions to the most affected areas.
... 17 However, PM less than 10 μm (PM 2.5 and PM 10 ) is of highest importance as it poses the most serious risks to human health. 15, 19,20 Epidemiological studies have shown positive associations between exposure to PM and frequency of certain illnesses and mortality. Exposure to fine PM is associated with a number of cardiovascular outcomes such as hypertension, atherosclerosis, arrhythmias, myocardial ischemia, heart attacks, heart failure and strokes. ...
... Exposure to fine PM is associated with a number of cardiovascular outcomes such as hypertension, atherosclerosis, arrhythmias, myocardial ischemia, heart attacks, heart failure and strokes. 20 Karki et al. (2016) reported 11 300 inpatient admissions due to respiratory problems and a 3.7% rise in mortality and 1% rise in respiratory hospitalization per 10 µg/ m 3 rise in PM 2.5 . Similarly, a 10 µg/ m 3 increase in PM 10 was found to increase risk of hospitalization by 1.70% for respiratory and 2.29% for cardiovascular admissions. ...
Background
The Nepalese government announced a nationwide lockdown beginning on March 24, 2020 as an attempt to restrain the spread of COVID-19. The prohibition in flight operations and movement of vehicles, factory shutdowns and restriction in people's movement due to the lockdown led to a significant reduction in the amounts of pollutants degrading air quality in many countries.
Objectives
The present study aimed to analyze changes in particulate matter (PM) emissions and the air quality index (AQI) of six cities in Nepal i.e., Damak, Simara, Kathmandu, Pokhara, Nepalgunj and Surkhet due to the nationwide lockdown in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Methods
Daily PM concentrations of each of the six study cities from January 24 to September 21, 2020 were obtained from the World Air Quality Index project (https://aqicn.org) and analyzed using R Studio software. The drop percentage was calculated to determine the change in PM2.5 and PM10 concentration during different time periods. Independent sample Mann–Whitney U tests were performed to test the significance of differences in mean concentration for each site during the lockdown period (24 March–24 July 2020) and its corresponding period in 2019. Similarly, the significance of differences in mean concentrations between the lockdown period and the period immediately before lockdown (23 January–23 March) was also examined using the same test.
Results
During the lockdown period, in overall Nepal, AQIPM2.5 and AQIPM10 were within the moderate zone for the maximum number of days. As a result of the lockdown, the highest immediate and final drop of PM2.5 was observed in Damak (26.37%) and Nepalgunj (80.86%), respectively. Similarly, the highest immediate drop of PM10 was observed in Surkhet (37.22%) and finally in Nepalgunj (81.14%). Analysis with the Mann–Whitney U test indicated that for both PM types, all sites showed a statistically significant (p < 0.05) difference in mean concentrations during lockdown and the corresponding period in 2019.
Conclusions
The present study explored the positive association between vehicular movement and PM emissions, highlighting the need for alternative fuel sources to improve air quality and human health.
Competing Interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
... 6 Poor air quality in Nepal imposes an additional threat in worsening lung health. 8 Similarly, lack of awareness, low health literacy on COPD, educational and economic status are also observed to increase the risk of COPD. 9 Despite this high burden of disease and its risk factors in Nepal, there is a paucity of evidence on the prevalence of COPD diagnosed using spirometry applied in community-settings. This study estimates the prevalence of COPD and its correlates in a semi-urban area of western Nepal. ...
Background: Despite that COPD is the commonest NCDs in Nepal; there is limited research evidence estimating the burden of COPD through population-based data. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of COPD in Pokhara Metropolitan City, a semi-urban area of Western Nepal.
Methods: A cross-sectional household survey was conducted among 1459 adults ≥40 years, randomly selected from the population of Pokhara Metropolitan City. Lung function was measured using a portable spirometer (EasyOne™, ndd Medical Technologies). COPD was defined according to the GOLD-criteria as post-bronchodilator ratio FEV1/ FVC < 0.7. In addition, COPD was also assessed by the lower limit of normal (LLN) threshold defined as the lower fifth percentile for the predicted FEV1 /FVC. Reference values from the North Indian population, Chhabra et al. 2014 was taken for percentage prediction.
Results: Of 1508 individuals approached, 1459 participated in this study, 54% were female. The mean (SD) age of the participants was 55.5 (9.7) years. 18% of respondents were current smokers, while 24% were former smokers. Only 3 respondents had previously undergone spirometry. The prevalence of COPD was 12% based on a fixed ratio and 7% based on the LLN threshold. More than half of the COPD cases had a moderate obstruction, independent of the criteria used to define COPD. Nearly 77% of COPD cases were detected among current or former smokers, and 61% of COPD cases were male.
Conclusions: It is evident that the COPD is a highly prevalent and significant public health issue in Nepal, and often underdiagnosed. The prevalence is worse than the global average. Similarly, the COPD prevalence by LLN cut-off was lower than that by the fixed ratio cut-off.
... 6 Poor air quality in Nepal imposes an additional threat in worsening lung health. 8 Similarly, lack of awareness, low health literacy on COPD, educational and economic status are also observed to increase the risk of COPD. 9 Despite this high burden of disease and its risk factors in Nepal, there is a paucity of evidence on the prevalence of COPD diagnosed using spirometry applied in community-settings. This study estimates the prevalence of COPD and its correlates in a semi-urban area of western Nepal. ...
Background
Despite chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) being the commonest non-communicable disease in Nepal, there is limited research evidence estimating the spirometry-based burden of COPD. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of COPD and its correlates through a community-based survey in Pokhara Metropolitan City, a semi-urban area of Western Nepal.
Methods
A cross-sectional household survey was conducted among 1459 adults ≥40 years. COPD was defined according to the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) criteria as a post-bronchodilator ratio of forced expiratory volume in 1st second (FEV1) to forced vital capacity (FVC) <0.70 with the presence of symptoms. COPD was also defined by the lower limit of normal (LLN) threshold – FEV1/FVC < LLN cut-off values with the presence of symptoms. Study participants were interviewed about sociodemographic and behavioural characteristics and respiratory symptoms. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were applied.
Results
Spirometry reports were acceptable in 1438 participants. The mean age of the participants was 55 (±10) years, and, 54% were female. The prevalence of GOLD-defined COPD was 8.5% (95% CI: 7.1–10.0) and based on the LLN threshold of 5.4% (95% CI: 4.2–6.6). The multivariate logistic regression showed that increasing age, low body mass index, illiterate, current or former smoker, and biomass fuel smoke increased the odds of COPD in both the definitions.
Conclusion
COPD is highly prevalent at community level and often underdiagnosed. Strategies aiming at early diagnosis and treatment of COPD, especially for the elderly, illiterate, and reducing exposure to smoking and biomass fuel smoke and childhood lung infection could be effective.
... Kurmi et al. 2016) bzw. auch durch die klimatisch ungünstige Beckenlage in Kathmandu erheblich erschwert. ...
