Question

Read the passage carefully:

1. Air pollution is a major threat to human health. The United Nations Environment Programme has estimated that, globally, 1.1 billion people breathe in unhealthy air. The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that urban air pollution is responsible for approximately 800,000 deaths and 4.6 million people lose their lives every year around the globe.
2. Traffic and transportation problems, inadequate drainage facilities, lack of open spaces, carbon emissions and the accumulation of waste aggravate the problem. Air pollution is associated with increased risk of acute respiratory infections (ARI), the principal cause of infant and child mortality in developing countries.
3. Urban air quality in most mega cities has been found to be critical and Kolkata is no exception to this. An analysis of ambient air quality in Kolkata was done by applying the Exceedance Factor (EF) method, where the presence of listed pollutants’ (RPM, SPM, \[\ce{NO2}\], and \[\ce{SO2}\]) annual average concentration are classified into four different categories; namely critical, high, moderate and low pollution. Out of a total of 17 ambient air quality monitoring stations operating in Kolkata, five fall under the critical category and the remaining 12 locations fall under the high category of \[\ce{NO2}\], concentration, while for RPM, four record critical and 13 come under the high pollution category. The causes of high concentration of pollutants in the form of \[\ce{NO2}\] and RPM have been identified in earlier studies as vehicular emission (51.4%), followed by industrial sources (24.5%) and dust particles (21.1%).
4. Later, a health assessment was undertaken with a structured questionnaire at some nearby dispensaries which fall under areas with different ambient air pollution levels. Three dispensaries have been surveyed with 100 participants. It shows that respondents with respiratory diseases (85.1%) have outnumbered waterborne diseases (14.9%) and include acute respiratory infections (ARI) (60%), chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) (7.8%), upper track respiratory infection (UTRI) (1.2%), Influenza (12.7%) and acid-fast bacillus (AFB) (3.4%).
5. To live a healthy life and have better well-being, practising pollution averting activities in one's day-to-day activities is needed. These pollution-averting practices can only be possible when awareness among the masses is generated that the air, they breathe outdoors, is not found to be safe.
   

The author's opinion on the development of Mega cities is: 

पर्याय

• Cities face transportation problems due to heavy traffic.

• Urbanization leads to deterioration of air quality.

• Mega cities are the right spots to study air pollution.

• Cities face the problem of congestion. 

Answer 1

Urbanization leads to deterioration of air quality.

Explanation:

"Urban air quality in most mega cities has been found to be critical."