Lahore, October 05, 2022 (PPI-OT):UCP takes great pride in informing that the Faculty of Science and Technology has signed an MoU with the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University at Albany, State University of New York, USA. In light of this memorandum of understanding, both parties will be conducting joint research on “Air pollution monitoring of PM2.5 in Lahore to investigate the cause of smog and its effects on health”. The cost of the project is Rs. 4.21 M.
Lahore is one of the major cities of Pakistan, having high levels of air pollutants and adverse effects on health. However, the lack of reliable data on air quality and cause-specific morbidity and mortality remains a significant impediment to conducting such studies in major cities of the country. Air pollution in major cities of Pakistan comes from many different sources like significant stationary sources – industries, power plants, smelters, brick kilns; Combustion – coal, burning refuse (garbage and biomass); and Mobile sources such as vehicular traffic.
Pakistan’s economy bears considerable costs of poor air quality. Direct costs could include infant mortality, debilitating diseases (cancer, CVD, asthma, and bronchitis), and acute morbidities\ (obesity, mental illness, and cognitive dysfunction. Indirect costs could include lower labour supply and productivity, higher incidence of violent crime, migration of skilled labour, volatility in the financial sector, and absence of school children and workers.
Dr. Muhammad Akhyar Farrukh will conduct this collaborative research project on air pollution monitoring, representing FOST-UCP, while the University at Albany, USA, will be represented by Dr. Haider A. Khwaja.
Dean Fost, Dr. Hafiza Rizwana Kausar thoroughly appreciated the principal investigators. She believes this project will also help FOST research students to learn advanced techniques used in air sample collection and analysis of air pollutants.
Dr. Nassar Ikram, Pro-Rector of UCP, congratulated the team and said the project would benefit society at large, and the project’s outcomes would be conveyed to the government to take appropriate measures.
For more information, contact:
University of Central Punjab (UCP)
Khayaban-e-Jinnah Road, Johar Town, Lahore, Pakistan
Phone: +92-42-35880007
Fax: +92-42-35954892
Email: info@ucp.edu.pk
Website: https://www.ucp.edu.pk/