KOLKATA: The state environment minister hit the bull’s eye when he said on Wednesday that “air pollution was reducing lifespans” and “some people could have lived a couple of years longer” had our air not been so polluted. Experts on Thursday agreed with Suvendu Adhikari but quoted a recent study to show that citizens were paying with more than “a couple of years”. Air pollution had led to a reduction of 6.1 years in Bengal’s average life expectancy, the last such study done jointly by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and the National Centre for Atmospheric Resrearch in 2016 revealed.This reduced average life expectancy was only second to Delhi’s, which stood at 6.4 years. Diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, asthma, bronchitis and respiratory allergies were a direct fallout of high levels of PM 2.5 (particulate matter 2.5 microns or less in size), which could enter human lungs and bloodstream much more easily because of their small size, environmental experts said on Thursday.“The city has been covered by a cloud of poisonous carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide fumes since last November,” Fortis Hospital internal medicine consultant Joydeep Ghosh said.Winters have always been a high-pollution period but this time this has been longer than usual. The counts show that it has been getting worse every passing year and this is evident in our clinics. COPD patients have found it difficult to cope with this winter and asthma and bronchitis attacks have been very severe. Pollution is directly responsible for this,” Joydeep Ghosh added.Chronic bronchitis and emphysema or the lung turning inelastic have become common in Kolkata, according to Debashish Saha, consultant at AMRI Hospital. “These are the two most common forms of COPD and the number of patients has been spiralling sharply. Prolonged exposure to pollution is responsible for this. The number of patients suffering from respiratory distress and breathlessness is rising every year and, more alarmingly, the severity of these ailments is now markedly higher,” Saha said, adding that this could be attributed to the higher pollution intensity.“The continual high levels of pollution, which have stayed in the ‘severe’ category almost every day this winter, contribute directly to the dip in life expectancy that the 2016 study speaks about,” he added.Respiratory allergies are now arguably the most common form of illness in Kolkata, say doctors. A constant onslaught of carcinogenic gases is putting the respiratory tract under severe stress. “Allergic cough, sneezing, wheezing and shortness of breath strike more frequently than ever before. Those with COPD are suffering more severe spells of breathlessness or acute COPD,” Belle Vue Clinic critical care expert Samarjit Naskar said. “Pollutants like benzene and sulphur dioxide act on the nucleus of cells and alter them. This could lead to diseases like cancer that reduce our life expectancy,” said Naskar.The 2016 study also says that 70% of Kolkata’s population suffer from pollution-induced respiratory disorders. More severe bouts of asthma attacks were an important indicator of the rising intensity of pollution-induced ailments, confirmed consultant Arindam Biswas.“It confirms that pollution is infiltrating the lungs more frequently now. Over the last five winters, asthma patients in Kolkata have had repeated attacks. Asthma patients are usually more sensitive to the air they breathe in and are the first victims of pollution. Such repeated attacks have made them depend on medication, which will definitely shorten their life-span. The same holds true for COPD patients and even those with a cardiac condition since the lung and the heart are closely related,” said Biswas.Smokers were far more vulnerable than the rest, according to Ranjan Das, pulmonologist, CMRI Hospital. “We now find that smokers suffer more frequently from upper and lower respiratory tract infections than ever before. This is especially true in winter when the pollution load rises sharply. It can be linked to the city’s rising pollution,” said Das.

Stay updated with all the Kolkata Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.