Dr. Mahesh P A
JSS Medical College

Impact of indoor and outdoor air pollution on respiratory health

ABSTRACT

Indoor and outdoor pollution has major impact on respiratory health and can affect the airways, parenchyma and the lung interstitium which is the gas exchanging membrane, leading to significant disability and early mortality. Air pollution can worsen pre-existing conditions such as asthma or lead to new conditions such as COPD, ILD, Lung cancers and increase risk of Pneumonias. Low lung functions associated with greater mortality are potentially related to air pollution. The toxicity of the particulate matter is important as well as the total particulate matter. Several hidden pollutants such as incense sticks, dhoop and mosquito coils are important in the Indian household which can lead to significant respiratory disease. There are important phenotypes such as eosinophilic airway inflammation even in subjects exposed to indoor air pollution. Follow-up of 8457 subjects from the MUDHRA cohort for 17 years has confirmed that subjects with biomass exposure have a greater risk of death due to all cause mortality compared to subjects with lower or no biomass exposure. Subjects with biomass exposure and respiratory symptoms such as cough or sputum have even greater risk of all cause mortality. Signals of increased oxidative stress can be seen even in adolescent girls exposed to biomass fuel exposure compared to girls who are exposed to LPG cooking at home.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Publications: Original articles – 306; International – 273, National -33, Books – 3,   Book chapters – 12,   h-index – 71 and i10-index – 154, Total Citations – 1,00,313, Average Impact factor 41.9

Listed in the top 2% of all researchers in the world in the last 250 years and in the years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 by Stanford University, USA

AD scientific: Field of Medical and Health sciences, based on citations – Ranked 1st in the world (2023)

Special awards and recognition: Young Scientist-ICAAI, Raju award – ICAAI, WAO travel grant, Best thematic paper at NAPCON, Tatachari award for best research paper – JSS, Best referee Lung India, Shivpuri Oration 2017 (ICAAI), OA Sarma oration 2019 (ICS)

Serving on 9 committees of American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology, USA, Served on Difficult Asthma  and Climate change and Allergy working groups AAAAI , Foundations for Allergen Immunotherapy course, and Pollen food syndrome, AAAAI

Global Council of Governors (2018-2020) and Airway Network Steering Committees (2017-2022) of the American College Chest Physicians

Chair, Guidelines on Pharmacotherapy for ACO and member, Member, guidelines on biologics in asthma by the American College of Chest Physicians. Collaborator for large International and national studies: Europrevall (Food Allergy), BOLD I & II (COPD), Global Burden of Disease (GBD), ICMR – Asthma and COPD, GLIMP, Embarc, Global Asthma Network.