Kanpur: All the mix for a fit
In Kanpur, one of the worst polluted cities in India, the smog never goes away. Diesel-guzzling tempos, the city's most common mode of transport, fight for space on potholed-and-muddy roads. Dust hangs thick in the air. Every time a train passes by, traffic halts and spews fumes because the railway track passes right through the city's centre. Travelling here takes hours. All these can make people asthmatic but no data on the disease in the city is available. Medicine shop owner Anuj Rawall can provide a clue. His Popular Medical Stores opposite LLR Hospital sells asthma medicines worth Rs 50,000 every month.
Poor families here pay through their nose to get treatment for their asthmatic children. When neigbourhood doctors can't help, families turn to government hospitals. When it rained in winter three years ago, eight-year-old Moni caught pneumonia. She was recovering but her brother and sister fell sick and their parents had to divert their money for them. Moni fell sick again and a local doctor gave her medicines worth Rs 10 for days.
She now visits LLR Hospital every week for treatment. Moni's father, who works at a brick kiln, earns rs Rs 60 per day. Each week her parents spend Rs 60 on medicines and Rs 20 on travelling. "We have not paid the house rent for six months and have been borrowing to buy ration,' says mother Phoolmati.
Moni and her parents aren't the only ones struggling with asthma and poverty in Kanpur. Seven-year-old Umesh Kumar has spent Rs 700 on medicines in two months. His father Manoj Tiwari, a tailor, earns around Rs 2,000 every month.
When he fell sick for the first time, one-year-old Mushtab made 10 trips to the doctor for persistent cold. Each trip meant paying at least Rs 20-Rs 50 to the doctor and buying medicines worth Rs 150. Now he visits a government hospital. "Childhood asthma isn't properly diagnosed and treated in the city,' says V N Tripathi, head, postgraduate department of paediatrics, GSVM medical college and LLR Hospital.
Going asthmatic?
A study carried out by IIT Kanpur, GSVM Medical College and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has found that pollution reduces lung efficiency. The lung efficiency of people, who were examined during the study, was divided into three groups: Green or no asthma, yellow or beginning of asthma and red or asthmatic. A major proportion of the people living in residential Juhilal Colony were in the yellow zone. Most residents of IIT campus were in the green zone. Industrial Vikas Nagar too had most people in the safe zone but the number of them in the risk zone was more than in IIT. "The population currently in the safe zone can be easily pushed towards asthma if the pollution level goes high,' says Mukesh Sharma, professor of environmental engineering and management programme at IIT Kanpur. Sharma believes as people living in residential areas are more affected by asthma, it is likely that the disease is linked with indoor air pollution.
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