Quite often, people raise a lot of hue and cry over the increasing automobile pollution in the urban areas causing severe health hazards, but little do they know that the worst sufferers of the pollution are the traffic police personnel.

In Hyderabad, the fifth largest metropolitan city in the country, 32 per cent of the traffic police personnel are suffering from lung-related disorders like pneumonia and bronchitis because of severe air pollution, while 25 per cent of them are facing hearing impairment due to high-level of noise pollution and another seven per cent of the traffic cops are complaining about eye-related problems due to dust particles.

According to the official figures, there are in all, 3,236 traffic police personnel in Hyderabad in various cadres – including 19 inspectors, 77 sub-inspectors, 13 assistant SIs, 172 head constables, 846 constables and 1,276 home guards.

This was revealed by Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) C V Anand at a presentation made before the parliamentary standing committee on science, technology, environment and forests last week. He explained to the committee members and officials at length how increasing air pollution due to automobile exhausts and noise was affecting the health of traffic cops in Hyderabad over the years.

via 32 per cent of Hyderabad traffic cops suffering from lung disorders due to automobile pollution: Study : South, News – India Today.