The University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) in Lahore has established international links with the University of Essex in Britain with the support of the British Council and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) by inviting British researchers to investigate air pollutants and particulate matter affecting human and animal health.
Investigations have cropped up on variations in indoor and outdoor concentration of particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5, PM1) in various activities for different micro-environments. Use of bio-mass fuels in traditional stoves produces high level of indoor air pollutants and 94 percent of rural and 58 percent of urban households depend on bio-mass fuel in Pakistan while previous findings show burden of disease due to indoor air pollution from solid fuel use is 4.6 percent.
In the recent study, two rural and one urban site were selected and the mass concentration of particulate matter was monitored, using two optical particle counters. The sampling was carried out simultaneously indoors and outdoors. At a rural site near Okara, the average indoor and outdoor ratios for PM10, PM2.5 and PM1 in a living room were 1.74, 2.49 and 3.01, respectively.
In the kitchens, a large variation was recorded in the mass concentration of particulate matter during cooking with concentrations in the range of 4,000 to 8,555µg/m3. In a living room at the urban site on Multan Road Lahore, the average indoor/outdoor ratios for PM10, PM2.5 and PM1 were 1.71, 2.88 and 3.47, respectively. This study showed considerably high concentrations of particulate matter, particularly in the kitchen using bio-fuel, as compared to living areas.
Thus women and children face the greatest exposure due to the duration of time they spend in the kitchen. This situation calls for an immediate intervention to arrest the immensely high levels of indoor air pollutants. Professor Dr Irshad Hussain and doctors Suhail and Zulfiqar are taking part in the research.
Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Muhammad Nawaz has shown keen interest in environment research findings and wants development in such links and exchange of researchers with different foreign universities. Under this link programme, the UVAS has also developed new courses curriculum for the Department of Wildlife and Ecology and post-graduate classes have started for quality research in wildlife and environmental sciences.
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