Effects of Air Pollution on Public Health: The case of Vital Traffic Junctions under Kolkata Municipal Corporation

The growing menace of air pollution is one of the crucial environmental issues in modern era across the world. This is a silent killer of the physical as well as mental health of human being. The existing findings in Indian context show that, Kolkata is amongst the polluted city primarily because of high population base and growing surface traffic. In the light of this, the present study addresses the main source of air pollution viz. the traffic air pollution and its likely impact upon the occupationally exposed people who spends more than eight hours on few selected busy traffic intersections of the city. Primary data were collected during the daytime of the city which includes the busiest road crossings, commercial and residential areas from different parts of the city. The targeted group for each survey includes traffic police, garage mechanics, public transport-drivers, salesmen, hawkers and shopkeepers. The finding shows that Ultadanga crossing from north-eastern parts, Shyambazar-V point crossing from northern parts and Behala- Chowrasta crossing from southern parts is more polluted traffic points in comparison to other locations of the city. These intersections have also recorded more cases of air borne diseases compared to other locations. The study broadly observes six major health disorders caused by air pollution in the survey period 2012 and 2013.