Hyderabad: Air pollution caused due to extreme traffic congestion is causing heart attacks and lung cancer even to those who eat healthy food and do exercise, said Karuna Gopal, president of Foundation for Futuristic Cities, here on Sunday.
“Today any global discourse on health is not possible without urban health, which is a major part of those discussions. That is because we are in the urban millennium where most of the world lives in cities,” said Gopal.
She was speaking at a roundtable on ‘Healthy Hyderabad, Wealthy Hyderabad’ organised at the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) here.
“Obesity among children is not caused because they eat junk food but due to lack of sufficient parks, sports complexes, municipal swimming pools, public gyms, etc., for them to play. Urban environments are often referred to as ‘obesogenic’ as they can discourage physical activity,” she said.
“This roundtable is extremely valuable to India and perhaps even to the world as India accounts for 21 per cent of the global disease burden. NCDs constitute 65 per cent of overall disease burden in India and shall impact the economy to the extent of Rs 24,000 crore,” she said.
Gopal said that Hyderabad is recording many cases of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. A new health study across Hyderabad schools has revealed disturbing trends on various health disorders even among school children.
“One out of every five kids is vulnerable to lifestyle and metabolic diseases as Hyderabad has the highest child obesity,” she added.
Gopal urged Telangana government to see Hyderabad through the lens of health and explore health-centric planning.
Himachal Pradesh Governor Bandaru Dattatreya, Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy and various technology experts participated in the roundtable discussion.
“Most of the top ten causes of death in 2016 were directly or indirectly influenced by faulty urban design and planning policies. Heart attack, stroke, chronic respiratory disease, and lung cancer are caused by air pollution,” she said.