Adverse Health Consequences of Poor Air Quality in Nepal: A Wake-Up Call

Literatures shows that poor air quality index (AQI) is associated with several adverse health impacts, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes mellitus, tuberculosis, cancer, pneumonia, cataracts, heart diseases, and mental health disorders. Nepal, one of the lower-middle-income countries, has become vulnerable to adverse health impacts due to poor AQI over time. The capital city of Nepal, Kathmandu, is frequently placed as one of the most polluted cities by IQAir. As such, this statement marks a caution for policymakers and the public to be aware of the future effects of prolonged exposure to air pollution and highlights its causative factors. To solve this burgeoning issue, because of the significant rise in urbanization and population growth, mitigation strategies such as creating awareness, reducing vehicular emission, reducing forest fires, creating and identifying vulnerability maps risk zones for forest fires, switching to electronic vehicles and personal interventions such as staying indoors and reducing physical outdoor activity, wearing face masks must be focused and given priority. Although our study is limited in its methodology and findings, it helps establish a policy base to underscore the need for longitudinal cohort studies to generate further evidences pertaining to not up to par air quality levels and their subsequent health impacts in the Nepalese population.