This paper estimates the economic burden of respiratory illness in rural UP (Uttar Pradesh), a state in North India. This is based on a large comprehensive survey covering a sample of 7564 households in 6 districts and 51 villages in UP. The economic value of the days lost due to illness in one month is 4233 million rupees. Cleaner fuels, health education and better health care can avoid some of these expenditures.

Human activities are releasing tiny particles (aerosols) into the atmosphere. These human-made aerosols enhance scattering and absorption of solar radiation. They also produce brighter clouds that are less efficient at releasing precipitation. These in turn lead to large reductions in the amount of solar irradiance reaching Earth's surface, a corresponding increase in solar heating of the atmosphere, changes in the atmospheric temperature structure, suppression of rainfall, and less efficient removal of pollutants.

Every year, from December to April, anthropogenic haze spreads over most of the North Indian Ocean, and South and Southeast Asia. The Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX) documented this Indo-Asian haze at scales ranging from individual particles to its contribution to the regional climate forcing. This study integrates the multiplatform observations (satellites, aircraft, ships, surface stations, and balloons) with oneand four-dimensional models to derive the regional
aerosol forcing resulting from the direct, the semidirect and the two indirect effects.