“The Union health ministry will soon release, what is being called the “New Delhi declaration on mitigating effects of air pollution”. This will offer a time-bound action plan to different ministries to address various sources of air pollution. The health ministry has also decided to include chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD)—a health condition closely associated with exposure to toxic air—in the non-communicable diseases (NCD) programme.
“It has recently held a meeting with the steering committee constituted to look into air pollution. The panel released a report in August last year and had been discussing the need to include COPD in NCD programme since then but the ministry finally took the decision to include it only last month. “All states have been asked to include COPD in the NCD programme. The issue will also be discussed with all BRICS nations during our meetings on November 17 and 18 because all these nations are affected by this problem,” said Dr Damodar Bachani, deputy commissioner (non-communicable diseases) at the health ministry.
“This would mean that along with diabetes, cancer, hypertension and others, NCD clinics will start screening people for COPD too from now on. “All clinics will have spirometers that can measure the lung capacity. Assistance will be provided to make nebulizers, bronchodilators and relevant antibiotics available. We always knew that COPD was the second largest killer after heart disease in the NCD category. Our decision to include it was triggered by the steering committee report on air pollution,” Dr Bachani added.” Times of India. Read it on delhiair.org.