The Magazine of Dubai Women's College Volume 16 Issue 2, May ...

12 > FEATURE
AIR POLLUTION
Victims
TEXT : Eman Ghazal and Amira Saeed
“An estimated 15 percent of the people in the United Arab Emirates
have asthma, a chronic respiratory disease characterized by sudden
recurrent attacks of coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath.
In the UAE, a staggering 40 percent of the children have asthma,”
states a report recently released by Dubai Healthcare City.
Dubai is a city that is changing rapidly
bringing to its residents a luxurious life
style and quality of services and facilities,
but unfortunately modernism has an ugly
face. A few years back, the quality of air
was never a concern for the city’s inhabitants.
Nowadays, it is an issue of concern that
it is alarming the country’s health authorities.
A visit to a chest/lung specialist in Dubai
reveals that the number of people who are
falling victim to air pollution is growing.
Many suffer from a chronic respiratory disease
known as asthma. It attacks the lungs when
the airways are narrowed, which eventually
results in obstruction of the flow of air and
difficulty in breathing. The asthma attacks
occur mainly due to environmental reasons,
weather changes and other allergens such
as cats, dogs, mold, and dust.
Dr. Tarek Eissa, an ENT Specialist based
in Dubai, believes that air pollution triggers
asthma, especially when the patients live
in a crowded city where cars and factories
generate air pollutants. However, he thinks
it is not yet a serious problem in the UAE.
“We still have green areas around the city,”
he says. Dubai still enjoys good air quality,
unlike major cities like Cairo or Tokyo
where pollution is very high, Tarek says.
Dubai Municipality is making a great effort
to increase the green areas in Dubai to help
refresh the air. “Green areas work like a lung
for the city as they provide us with oxygen,”
he explains. Dubai Municipality has an
Environment Protection and Safety Section
(EPSS) of the Environment Department
that is responsible for monitoring air pollution
and controlling the air quality in Dubai. Since
1988 an air-monitoring system has been in
place to provide the basic data necessary for
air quality control programs. In 1993/1994
a new air monitoring network was set up by
Dubai Municipality to greatly expand this
air monitoring capability. From that time
onwards additional air quality analyzers were
placed to meet the air quality monitoring
demand for determining the exposure of the
public to air pollution. Commenting on the
quality of air in the city, a senior environment
officer at Dubai Municipality says, “There are
two sources of air pollution: emissions from
stationary sources and this includes industrial