YOUR increasing difficulty in breathing is not due only to the falling peso, rising prices, and pork-loving politicians. If you're a resident of Metro Manila, Davao, Cebu, or Baguio, the very air you breathe could be making you sick because it is loaded with lung-unfriendly particulates.

In its 2002 report on air quality in the Philippines, the World Bank says that for these four cities, fine particle emission — courtesy of factories, fuel-powered vehicles and trash-burning, among other things — causes an estimated 2,000 premature deaths each year, 9,000 cases of chronic bronchitis, and 51 million days of respiratory illness. The pollutants can cost some P2,000 per person per year in treatment and medication. For these four most polluted cities in the country, the total cost of exposure to pollutants adds up to over P23 billion annually — and that's not counting lost wages, low productivity, and premature loss of life.

The report indicates that although 98 percent of the population wants cleaner air, there is low awareness on efforts to reduce air pollution.

But perhaps the experience of neighboring Asian countries can offer some lessons on how to have less lethal air. Indeed, many Asian capitals have taken low-cost measures to bring down particulate levels and have likewise placed the burden of action largely on those responsible for pollution. These measures include:

• Improving commercial-vehicle maintenance, especially for high-use diesel vehicles;

• Promoting four-stroke motorcycles that cost about the same as motorcycles with two-stroke engines, only four-strokes are much cleaner and fuel-efficient;

• Requiring manufacturers to install exhaust catalysts on new gasoline vehicles to reduce carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxides;

• Reducing sulfur in diesel fuel;

• Enforcing the ban on waste burning;

• Encouraging people to use public transportation, energy-efficient appliances, composting and recycling, and reporting smoke-belching vehicles to authorities.