An estimated 1,200 lives could be saved and 80 occurrences of disease avoided a year if the ghastly exposure to urban air pollution is reduced by 20 percent, an expert said Sunday, reports BSS.

Dr Mohammed Nasiruddin of the Ministry of Environment and Forests said particulate matter (PM) is the key air pollutant in Dhaka city and which accounts health costs of US$170 million every year.

The PM has steadily been increasing in recent years with an annual average of much higher than the estimation of the World Health Organization (WHO), Nasiruddin said attributing it to the lack of access to clean water and sanitation.

Nasiruddin, project director of Clean Air Sustainable Environment (CASE), made these observations while presenting a keynote paper on environment and transport of the Clean Air and Sustainable Environment (CASE) project at a city hotel.

Department of Environment (DoE) of the Ministry and the World Bank have jointly organised the technical session in connection with the launching of the seven-year CASE project involving Tk 4.5 billion today.

The country will have 10 air quality cells and nine air monitoring stations (SAMS) in all major city corporations, and a central well-equipped laboratory after the project will come to an end by 2015.