Urban Traffic Emissions and Associated Environmental Impacts in India - Novel Combustion Concepts for Sustainable Energy Development - page 402

4 Traf c Emissions and Its Impacts on Human Health

According recent studies, the traf c emission effect on human health is the one of

the major concern in Indian cities. Several researchers indicated the adverse effect
of outdoor air pollution on human health in Indian cities. As discussed in above
section, that traf c emission is an important contributor for local air pollution in

Indian cities which directly re ects its association with leading health effects due to

urban traffic. Primary emissions of NO 2 , CO, and VOC from vehicles are also
responsible for ground level O 3 formation by photochemical reaction which is
responsible for allergic asthmatics by augmenting allergic responses (Steinberg
et al. 1991 ). The emission of SO 2 , PM, NO, and acid aerosols also causes
in

fl

ammation of bronchial mucous (Karen and Michak 1991 ; Giuseppe et al. 1993 ).
The exposure of urban traf

fl

c emissions is most vulnerable to sick and old people.
According to Guttikunda and Jawahar ( 2012 ), the health impacts of air pollution
from the transport sector are not insigni cant and the nature of the issue is that those

areas with the most population density are most affected. The health impact analysis
estimates up to 49,500 deaths in 2010 and 158,500 in 2030 due to road transport in
India. The results of health risk analyses study conducted by Guttikunda and
Jawahar ( 2012 ) is given in Fig. 6 . However, Guttikunda and Jawahar ( 2012 ) only
estimated the direct impacts of urban traf c emissions, but they mentioned emission

indirectly responsible for increase in in fl ammation, cardiac conditions, decrease in

fertility, cancer, and premature birth.

500000

430000

450000

400000

350000

300000

250000

200000

150000

100000

60000

49500

30000

50000

18500

8000

0

Premature
mortality
(lower
bound)

Premature
mortality
(upper
bound)

Adult
Chronic
Bronchitis

Child Acute
Bronchitis

Respiratory
Hospital
Admission

Cardiac
Hospital
Admission

Fig. 6 Traffic emission and associated health effects estimation in India. Source Guttikunda and
Jawahar ( 2012 )