Final Report on Development of procedures and the assessment of EBD of local levels due to major environmental risk factors

Abstract

Executive Summary: There is direct relationship between environment and health. The magnitude of health problems is increasing day by day due to the exposure of various types of environmental risk factors. Among them, two of the major environmental risk factors under investigation are ambient air pollution and bacterial contamination of water supplies in Kathmandu Valley. The study has been conducted to assess how much serious is the impact of the two risk factors on environmental burden of disease in the valley. This has been assessed by quantifying the proportion and amount of environmental disease burden that can be attributed to the risk factors. The health effects incorporated regarding ambient air pollution are Chronic Obstructed Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Pneumonia, Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI), Asthma, Bronchitis and Lung cancer. Similarly, those incorporated for bacterial contamination of water supplies are Cholera, Typhoid, Bacillary Dysentery and other Diarrheal Diseases. In order to gain some perspective on the dimensions of the environment-related health loss in Kathmandu Valley, the present study has estimated Environmental Burden of Disease (EBD) for the health effects that can be attributed to the two risk factors for the period 2003 to 2004 based upon local data made available by secondary sources.