Impact of Unsustainable Environmental Conditions Due to Vehicular Emissions on Associated Lifetime Cancer Risk in India: A Novel Approach

Parteek Singh Thind, Deepak Kumar, Sandeep Singh, Jasgurpreet Singh Chohan, Raman Kumar, Shubham Sharma, Changhe Li, Gianpaolo Di Bona, Antonio Forcina and Luca Silvestri
Additional contact information
Parteek Singh Thind: Department of Civil Engineering, Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh 160012, India
Deepak Kumar: Department of Geography, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra 136119, India
Sandeep Singh: Department of Civil Engineering, University Centre for Research & Development, Chandigarh University, Mohali 140413, India
Jasgurpreet Singh Chohan: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University Centre for Research & Development, Chandigarh University, Mohali 140413, India
Raman Kumar: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University Centre for Research & Development, Chandigarh University, Mohali 140413, India
Shubham Sharma: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University Centre for Research & Development, Chandigarh University, Mohali 140413, India
Changhe Li: School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Qingdao University of Technology, Qingdao 266520, China
Gianpaolo Di Bona: Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, 03043 Cassino, Italy
Antonio Forcina: Department of Engineering, University of Naples “Parthenope”, 80133 Naples, Italy
Luca Silvestri: Department of Engineering, University of Rome “Niccolo Cusano”, 00166 Rome, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 11, 1-14

Abstract: The Indian Western Himalayas (IWHs) are a world famous tourist spot, and every year millions of tourists visit this area in fossil fuel-driven vehicles. Emissions from these vehicles persistently deteriorate the pristine environment of the IWHs. Therefore, in the current study, efforts were made to assess the compromised environmental conditions of Manali, Himachal Pradesh, India that resulted from the inflow of tourists and the activities undertaken by them. This study revealed that Manali could sustainably accommodate only 0.305 M tourists/month, and this threshold was reported to be crossed in the months of April, May and June. Furthermore, to augment these findings, water and ambient air samples were collected and analyzed for the presence of elemental carbon (EC) from one of the medium tourism potential regions of Manali, i.e., the Hamta glacier. The tributary receiving water from the Hamta glacier and the ambient air of the area was observed to be contaminated with 42 ± 12 ppb and 880 ± 43 µg m −3 of EC, respectively. It was observed that the inhalation and ingestion of EC-contaminated air and water could jeopardize human health due to a high lifetime cancer risk. However, without the intervention of eco-tourism in the study area, higher environmental health effects were also speculated. The observations made in this study are expected to trigger the interests of the researchers, international scientific community and regional authorities working towards the unsustainable development of the IWHs and deteriorating environmental conditions.

Keywords: environmental conditions; elemental carbon; cancer risk assessment; Indian Western Himalayas; sustainable development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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