Lung health in Indians: Lung specialists have expressed concern about the rapidly declining respiratory health of younger Indians, with an estimated 81,700 new cases of lung cancer annually, highlighting the severity of the issue.
Conditions once associated with older age, lung cancer, COPD and tuberculosis are increasingly appearing earlier in life, raising concerns about long-term demographic and economic impacts.
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Doctors said daily exposure to toxic air, morning runs in smog, long commutes through traffic, and classrooms with poor air quality are inflicting “invisible injury” that will surface during the workforce’s most productive years. Indoor pollution is making the problem worse: information shared at RESPICON 2025, the eighth National Conference of Respiratory Medicine, Interventional Pulmonology and Sleep Disorders, revealed that smoke from kitchens and biomass fuels greatly increases the risk of lung cancer in non-smoking women, a danger that is often overlooked in public discussions
Children remain highly vulnerable. Pneumonia accounts for 14% of global under-five deaths, and repeated infections linked to polluted air are undermining child health and immunity, experts noted.
Inaugurating the meeting, Dr. Vatsala Agarwal, Director General of Health Services (DGHS), Delhi, urged policymakers to centre respiratory health on national priorities. “Clean air is not a luxury; it is a fundamental right… Protecting the lungs of our young population is protecting the economic and social fabric of the nation,” she said.
Dr. Rakesh K. Chawla, Programme Director and Chairman of RESPICON 2025, said halving exposure to fine particulate pollution and delivering guideline-based care for COPD, asthma and TB could prevent “hundreds of thousands of hospitalisations” annually and add healthy years of life. Without urgent action, he warned, India could hit its economic peak with “a workforce already gasping for air.”
Calling respiratory health “India’s climate story, cancer story, and child-survival story rolled into one,” Dr. Aditya K. Chawla, Organising Secretary, said the visible toll on youth is especially alarming: “If young Indians cannot breathe freely today, the nation’s future suffocates with them.”
Jointly hosted by Jaipur Golden Hospital and the Saroj Group of Hospitals in New Delhi, RESPICON 2025 drew over 1,200 delegates, including postgraduate students, senior pulmonologists, and international faculty. Sessions highlighted practical steps, like recommending clean air in clinics, using spirometry to diagnose chronic cough, speeding up TB treatment with universal NAAT testing, boosting adult vaccinations, and finding lung cancer early with low-dose CT and EBUS.
(Source: PTI)
