India plans to tackle the impact of air pollution on health at the district level

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air quality at that time. For this purpose, district level officials are being trained, with the Union health and family welfare ministry planning to introduce a district-level action plan to tackle the impact of air pollution on health, according to officials. "The idea is to have two sets of data—one is of patients having existing breathing difficulties like acute respiratory illness and the other of those coming to hospitals for the first time with the same complications.

Then the hospitals will also keep a data record of the treatment for patients—if they required admission in hospital and if oxygen supply was needed," said an official aware of the matter. The official further noted that hospitals will analyse the hospital's patient-load data with the city's air quality. Then, the state will probe the connection between pollution and health and to what extent pollution impacts public health.

"And this is going to help the local administration to know how pollution is impacting health and indicate the need of any action. There is a need for making climate-resilient health infrastructure to make a sustainable system. Therefore, apart from a state-level action plan, there is going to be a district-level action plan as well," the official noted.

Recently, around 200 officials from different districts were trained and asked to frame guidelines. Each district will have its own action plan. With more manpower, the plan will expand to cover aspects such as mental health, water, vector-borne diseases, and zoonotic diseases.