Exposure to air pollution especially PM2.5 has detrimental effect on human health especially on respiratory system. It can cause exacerbations in pre-exisiting asthma and onset new asthma as well. Asthma patient hospital visits in district Rawalpindi, Pakistan were analyzed by using kernel density estimation in ArcGIS 10.2. PM2.5 concentrations were recorded gravimetrically as well as OLI/TIRS Land Sat 8 data was processed to reveal the PM2.5 concentrations over the study area. Kernel density maps and PM2.5 concentration maps were studied to Fig. out the correlation of asthma patient hospital visits and PM2.5. Our study revealed the presence of more asthma hotspots with higher PM2.5 concentrations exceeding the national air quality standards. Therefore, PM2.5 is one of the contributing factors to the asthma prevalence in district Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
