'Grow indoor plants & avoid going out during highly congested traffic hours'

Kolkata: Pulmonologists have advised people to grow plants in their homes and avoid going out during highly congested traffic hours to combat air pollution that has gripped Kolkata badly.

The doctors maintained that during bronchoscopy, it is found that majority of the people living in the city suffer from respiratory distress which leads to emergency visits to the doctors and often hospitalisation. They maintained that though the awareness among people has gone up, the execution to bring down air pollution is not satisfactory.

Dr A G Ghosal, director, National Allergy Asthma Bronchitis Institute said even morning walk in heavy atmosphere is bad for health. The mosquito coils used in houses cause breathing trouble in many and should be avoided. He said the worst victims are children and aged people and they need constant medication to keep themselves fit. He urged the state government to ensure that people burst crackers in the parks and not in housing complexes which causes massive air pollution. "The festival light has actually become the festival of smoke and after Diwali and Chhath Puja more and more people are found to be suffering from allergy and respiratory distress."

Dr Shyama Agarwal said like Mumbai, the offices should allow their employees to work from home as many of them leave office before the peak traffic hour starts between 5 pm and 7 pm. She said every household in Kolkata should grow plants to combat air pollution and a massive awareness campaign in this connection is needed.

It may be mentioned that the state government is going to impose a ban on the plying of commercial vehicles that are more than 15 years old to bring down the pollution level.

To encourage people, Ramakrishna Math and Mission authorities have stopped the age-old convention of bursting fireworks at Belur Math from this year.