A STUDY ON THE AIR POLLUTION RELATED HUMAN DISEASES IN

The environment is an integral part of human life, the quality of which plays a critical role in human health. Every component of the biosphere has its own role in different types of epidemics. Though water and land pollution is very dangerous, air pollution has its own peculiarities, due to its transboundary dispersion of pollutants over the entire world. Therefore the study on air pollution and related impacts on human health have a special consideration today. Western countries have conducted several studies in this area, but there are only a few studies in developing countries like India. In this backdrop, a study on air pollution and related problems in Thiruvananthapuram city has been undertaken. The study area has been divided into three zones namely, residential, commercial and industrial, based on livelihood patterns in order to compare the health impacts in different human activity areas resulting from various types of pollution. The data shows an increasing trend in respiratory diseases with decreasing air quality. The hospital records also support the results obtained from the field study. The industrial effluent gases and low indoor air quality plays a key role in the industrial area, while vehicular pollution and congested housing patterns are the main factors in other zones. Th