Data-driven early warning system to prevent the health impacts of air pollution

Jakarta — The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) said that an integrated data-driven air pollution early warning system is important to strengthen in order to protect the public from health impacts of air pollution, ranging from pneumonia to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono, in Jakarta on Tuesday, said air pollution poses a serious health threat affecting all ages. Citing WHO data, nine in ten people worldwide live in areas with polluted air.

‘Have you ever noticed, when a heavy rain at night is followed by a clear morning with no clouds, you can see Mount Salak and Mount Gede clearly? But on ordinary days those mountains are not visible, because they are shrouded in grey haze. That haze is the air pollution that surrounds us every day,’ Dante said.

Therefore, he said, the Ministry of Health continues to strengthen health transformation to address health impacts from air pollution, from promotive and preventive aspects to the readiness of health services.

However, he noted that the biggest challenge today is the lack of an integrated data system linking air quality with health impacts directly.

‘This gap is the opportunity for us to jointly strengthen the early warning system through robust data integration,’ he said.

With a good early warning system, he said, the risk from air pollution can be responded to more quickly and accurately, thereby protecting vulnerable groups. This could realise an Indonesia that is not only advanced and self-reliant, but also healthy and sustainable.

Meanwhile, the Dean of the Faculty of Public Health at Universitas Indonesia, Prof Dr Indri Hapsari Susilowati, emphasised the importance of balancing human health with ecosystem sustainability. She noted that health issues cannot be separated from environmental conditions and changes to the planet’s ecosystems.

Therefore, the National Seminar on the Air Pollution Early Warning System, organised by Universitas Indonesia together with the Research Center for Climate Change (RCCC) of Universitas Indonesia, is expected to be a cross-sector collaboration space to strengthen learning, policy, and concrete actions related to controlling air pollution.

‘May the event run smoothly, be beneficial, and serve as a space to learn together,’ she said at the opening of the seminar.

The national seminar was attended by representatives from ministries/agencies, academics, researchers, local governments, and environmental and health advocates from the Jabodetabek area.