ICMR lauds Delhi govt's odd-even initiative

Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) today lauded the odd-even policy of Delhi government saying that air pollution is one of the risk factors of non-communicable diseases.
"There has been a good impact of odd-even in Delhi. Awareness about air pollution has also increased among people. It was an experiment and has also reduced traffic in past ten days," ICMR Director General Soumya Swaminathan said.
Talking about air-pollution, Soumya said ICMR is initiating a new study on air pollution in three hospitals in which co-relation between environmental air pollution and respiratory diseases will be established.
"The one-year study will be commissioned in a month in AIIMS, Kalawati Saran's Children hospital and Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute," she said.

Explaining the adverse effects of indoor air pollution, she said it was a very big issue in our country, particularly in the rural areas where 70 per cent of the women use solid fuel which increases air pollution inside the house and causes bad impact on the mother and children.
Air pollution is one of the risk factors of non-communicable diseases, she said.
"Our studies also suggest that pregnant women who do solid fuel based cooking give birth to a low-weight child and their lung development might also get affected. It is very important to shift from solid to clean fuel," she added.