CEMENT DUST EXPOSURE ON HUMAN HEALTH
Journal Title: International Journal of Research in Social Sciences - Year 2012, Vol 2, Issue 3
Abstract
India is facing a serious double burden of disease. Most of the old infectious diseases like malaria, filariasis and kala-azar have not yet disappeared; indeed they are bouncing back. At the same time, other chronic non-communicable diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and respiratory disorders are becoming more dominant. It is becoming clear that the pattern of economic growth that we are adopting is becoming increasingly associated with environmental pollution. A study comparing the rates of economic growth and the rates of growth of vehicular pollution and industrial pollution shows that during 1975–1995, the Indian economy grew by 2.5 times, but the industrial pollution load grew by 3.47 times and the vehicle pollution load by 7.5 times. Indeed, Indian cities are being exposed to high levels of air pollution and people living in these cities are paying a price for the deterioration in air quality. The World Bank has estimated that Indians are spending Rs 4550 crores every year on treatment of diseases caused by ambient air pollution (Current Science, 1999). Air quality affects human health. Nearly 1.4 billion urban residents in the world breathe air that fails the WHO air quality standards. At the global level, mortality due to exposure to outdoor air pollution is estimated to range from 200,000 to 570,000.In Indian cities, among the most polluted in the world, available mortality and morbidity statistics indicate that respiratory infections and chronic conditions are widespread. The Indian cement industry is a potentially high polluter and the country's biggest excise payer. Among the industrial sectors, the cement industryis the second largest emitter of carbon dioxide, and accounts for 5% of global human-made carbon dioxide emissions (Deep basu 2010). The important features characterizing the industry is that it may potentially have adverse environmental impact through three different routes: (a) converting culturable/ non-culturable land from their present uses into quarries and thus, disturbing the vegetation and ecosystem; (b) removing the limestone from the soil and thereby affecting the moisture profile as well as the structure of aquifers; and (c) creating air pollution which could be hazardous for human as well as animal health and for crop-yields( Amita Shah, 2006). This study was carried out in Madukkarai of Coimbatore District. Kurumbapalayam was identified as highly polluted area (HPA), since the people residing and working in that area are more exposed to cement dust. On the other hand Marapalayam, a low polluted area (LPA) is situated 5 km away from the cement factory with less exposure to the inhabitants. A sample of 120 respondents each was taken up from both LPA and HPA. Inclusion criteria for the study was that the person should be living and working in the selected areas for more than a year, be below 45 years and be a non smoker. A pretested structured interview schedule was prepared to collect the data. Respondents were interviewed regarding their socio-economic status and exposure history. Respondents were asked to rate these symptoms as ‘yes’ or ‘no’. The present study was undertaken to assess the pattern of morbidity in two areas of Madukkarai in Coimbatore district. This study is an effort to identify the adverse health impacts due to cement dust.
Authors and Affiliations
Dr. K. Shobha and Vennila Gopal
Keywords
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