AIR POLLUTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH: EVALUATING PAKISTAN’S ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION FRAMEWORK
Main Article Content
Abstract
The issue of air pollution in Pakistan is ranked very high on terms of its public health impact as the major cities of the country often experience levels of air pollution that fall above safe levels of air pollution. Amid the increasing health hazards, minimal analysis of how well the Pakistan environmental protection policies and the application instruments are doing to reduce pollution and the idea of protecting the populace health is minimal.
This analysis seeks to derive an understanding of the sufficiency and effectiveness of the environment protection apparatus in Pakistan in solving the issue of air pollution and its related impacts to the people. It tries to establish the policy gaps, institutional shortcomings, as well as areas where there is strategic improvement.
It is possible to use a mixed method approach, offering qualitative analysis of the policy documentations, regulatory laws, and institutional designs, and quantitative measurements of the air quality data and health indicators over time. The analysis can be complemented with the stakeholder interviews and case studies among big cities (Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad) to compare the on-ground implementation and the results on the level of population health.
The research can lead to serious failure of the enforcement capacity, inter-agency coordination, and the accountability apparatus to the public. Although there was the existence of the environmental laws, failure on monitoring and funding may hamper the implementation of the laws. It can cause correlations between high concentration of PM2. 5 and respiratory diseases, which makes urgent reform necessary.
No signs indicate that an effective system is practised by Pakistan, as this country has a nominal environmental regulator system, but further changes and reforms are required in the governance, data clarity, and integration with the public health to effectively fight against air pollution. The study reveals that a national strategy is required, which is interdisciplinary and integrative and which takes a preventive approach, builds stronger institutions, and harmonises the environmental regulation and health outcomes.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
References
Agyeman, J., Schlosberg, D., Craven, L., & Matthews, C. (2016). Trends and directions in environmental justice: From inequity to everyday life, community, and just sustainabilities. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 41, 321–340. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-110615-090052
Ahmed, T., & Shah, N. (2022). Institutional fragmentation and environmental governance in Pakistan: Challenges and opportunities. Environmental Policy and Law, 52(3), 234–245. https://doi.org/10.3233/EPL-210124
Ghosh, S., Patil, R. S., & Sengupta, B. (2023). Citizen science and smart sensors for air quality in Indian cities: Lessons from SmartAQNet. Atmospheric Environment, 295, 119550. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2022.119550
IQAir. (2024). World air quality report. https://www.iqair.com/world-air-quality-report
Khan, H., Raza, M., & Siddiqui, F. (2023). Air pollution trends and health burden in South Asia: A cross-national analysis. Journal of Environmental Management, 341, 117093. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117093
Landrigan, P. J., Fuller, R., Acosta, N. J. R., Adeyi, O., Arnold, R., Basu, N., ... & Zhong, M. (2018). The Lancet Commission on pollution and health. The Lancet, 391(10119), 462–512. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32345-0
Nasir, Z. A., Colbeck, I., & Ali, Z. (2020). Policy gaps and air pollution in Pakistan: A case study of Lahore. Atmospheric Pollution Research, 11(8), 1344–1353. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apr.2020.04.015
Power, M. C., et al. (2023). Air pollution and cognitive function: Emerging evidence and future directions. Environmental Health Perspectives, 131(1), 016001. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP11321
Schraufnagel, D. E., Balmes, J. R., De Matteis, S., Hoffman, B., Kim, W. J., Perez-Padilla, R., ... & Thurston, G. D. (2019). Health benefits of air pollution reduction. Annals of the American Thoracic Society, 16(12), 1478–1487. https://doi.org/10.1513/AnnalsATS.201907-538CME
Zaman, K., & Abbasi, N. (2021). Evaluating the efficacy of environmental protection laws in Pakistan. Pakistan Journal of Environmental Law, 6(1), 1–18.