Health Effects of Air Pollution among Residents of Delhi: A Systematic Review

Background: Air pollution is increasingly documented as a threat to public health and recognized as an important and modifiable determinate of respiratory diseases in urban environment. Differences in vulnerability and susceptibility due to different population characteristic, may affect the risk of developing a health effect and its severity. The present study evaluates scientific literature on air pollution, and its health effects on population of Delhi to identify the risk of exposure. This comprehensive review summarizes the limitations and gaps in recent studies and recommends some suggestions for future research.\nMethodology: PubMed and Google Scholar were rigorously searched for finding out research studies pertaining to air pollution and health effects in Delhi, India. All together, 13 studies from 1998 to 2017 were reviewed to understand the status of air quality and its adverse effect on human health.\nFindings: Air quality of Delhi was detrimental to human health and kept on deteriorating with time. Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM), Nitrogen oxides (NOX) and various other pollutants were above the recommended standard. Adverse health effects (coughing, wheezing, Hypertension etc.) has shown positive association with air pollutants, specifically with particulate matter. A more comprehensive research construing long term effect of air pollution on human health is thus, warranted for advocating policy or guidelines for measuring and understanding the harmful effects and also for the control of air pollution.