Health security

Environmental pollution is biggest cause of asthma: Experts (May 3 is World Asthma Day)

India has witnessed a huge rise in asthma in the past decade, especially among children, due to a spike in environmental pollution, experts have said.

Asthma is a chronic respiratory disorder due to inflammation of the airways in our lungs. Some of the common symptoms of asthma include breathlessness, tightness in the chest, and night cough.



Over 300 million people worldwide suffer from asthma that affects people of all ages and groups, with one-tenth of those living in India.

The surge has been blamed on various causes ranging from allergies to environmental pollution.

"Incidence of asthma is on a rise because of recent changes in our global environment -- increasing air pollution and dust particulate matter," said Anshum Aneja Arora, consultant at W-Pratiksha Hospital in Gurgaon.