The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) Center for Advanced Research on Environmental Health Air Pollution: (ICMR-CAR, SRIHER) was set up in 2010, at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, to strengthen the scientific evidence base for air quality actions in India and to contribute new information from settings experiencing dual health burdens from ambient and household sources through long-term health effects (cohort ) studies
ICMR-CAR, SRIHER in it’s I phase of activities (2010-2015) completed the Tamil Nadu Air Pollution and Health Effects (TAPHE) study that examined the association between fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposures and select maternal, child and adult health outcomes in integrated rural–urban cohorts. The study established quantitative exposure-response functions for air pollution in relation to birth weight, acute respiratory infections in children <2 years and chronic respiratory symptoms/lung function in adults. Several publications are currently communicating important new information to the global pool of evidence while also informing national efforts directed at maternal/ child health and chronic respiratory disease.
Based on the successful conduct of the I phase of activities, the Director General, ICMR accorded formal approval for the creation of the SRU-ICMR Centre for Advanced Research on Air Quality, Climate and Health (SRU-ICMR CAR) in July 2016. Over last ten years, SRIHER-ICMR CAR has expanded its collaboration with ICMR institutions as well as the scope of the scientific activities to cover a broader range of issues concerning Air Quality, Climate and Health. This has facilitated SRIHER to expand its contributions to national health programmes and policies under the stewardship of ICMR while fostering inter-institutional research collaborations amongst institutions of national eminence.
The Center is currently engaged in multiple major inter-institutional, international projects that have generated an enormous pool of exposure-response and intervention related evidence for air quality actions with the National Clean Air Programme. The continued collaboration between SRIHER and ICMR in the forthcoming years will allow an unprecedented opportunity for augmenting scientific outputs as well as scientific capacities in the domain of air quality, climate and health.