More air pollution in rural areas
Public health experts say more work is needed to create awareness about air pollution and its health effects, especially in rural communities.
Some researchers say it is unacceptable that there is an increasing number of deaths caused by pollution, many of which are preventable.
University of KwaZulu-Natal's Professor Rajen Naidoo spoke on air pollution and public health in South Africa at the Public Health Association of South Africa conference in Durban yesterday.
He conducted research on the health of pupils from schools, south of Durban as opposed to pupils from the north.
"If you're living in the south of Durban, you have almost a two-fold increase in risk of having persistent asthma and a 2.6-fold increase in risk of having bronchiole hyperactivity.
"Marked airway a hyper-reactivity was 11.5% in the south schools and 3.9% in the north schools. Clearly, there's something going on in the south schools," he said.
(File photo)