sars is a stark reminder that there is no universal safeguard against infectious diseases. The syndrome has actu

The detrimental effects of air pollution on health have been recognized for most of the last century. Effective legislation has led to a change in the nature of the air pollutants in outdoor air in developed countries, while combustion of raw fuels in the indoor environment remains a major health hazard in developing countries. The mechanisms of how these pollutants exert their effects are likely to be different, but there is emerging evidence that the toxic effects of new photochemical pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide are likely to be related to infection.

Exposure to air pollution affects pulmonary functions adversely. Effect of exposure to pollution on diurnal variation of peak flow was assessed in healthy students. Three hundred healthy age-matched nonsmoker students were studied. They were categorized into two groups on the basis of their residence: commuters and living on campus.

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.

In 2000, a risk assessment of IAP (indoor air pollution) due to household use of solid fuels in India was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Smith 2000). Employing a different and more systematic method than used before, it estimated the premature deaths and illnesses resulting from household epidemiological studies of developing countries, which use solid fuels, to the Indian situation by employing the national Census report on percentage of household solid fuel use as the surrogate of exposure.