• Successful studies carried out by South Asian practitioners on the relationship between air pollution (particulate matter (PM)) and the health of school children in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Kathmandu, Nepal and Islamabad, Pakistan. Regionally specific data shows that lung function of children is impacted by levels of particulate matter pollution found in Asian cities.
• The Malé Declaration studies are some of the first to have been conducted where particulate matter concentrations are at the highest levels found in many large Asian cities.
• The finding of these studies emphasise the high cost of air pollution to the health of the community and the need to implement cost-effective measures to reduce emissions of health-damaging air pollutants.
• A Regional Centre of Health Impact Assessment is currently being established in Bangladesh to oversee coordination, harmonization, quality control and reporting of the Malé Declaration health impact activities.
• This activity has been undertaken during Phase III: two regional training programmes on health impact assessment have been conducted and an epidemiological study looking into the impacts of particulate matter on asthmatic schoolchildren has been successfully undertaken in Bangladesh.

Related Meeting