Pressure cooker steam therapy is the latest trend among police personnel

Bengaluru: Every day cops at Sarjapur police station gather around a pressure cooker that has been converted to a steam inhaling device. There is boiled water and herbs and medicinal leaves such as tulsi, neem and eucalyptus filled in the cooker. It releases steam which the personnel inhale through vents.

Police personnel in Bengaluru and different parts of Karnataka are adopting new methods to prevent Covid-19. They practice pranayama and take kashaya and zinc tablets. The latest trend is the practice of medicinal inhalation.

Harish V, station in-charge recently ordered a custom made cooker. It has a long steel pipe and a pair of vents that two police personnel can use simultaneously. He said, “Staff have been asked to inhale steam after completing their shift, and before returning home.”

As the cases are increasing, it has created an impact not only on the police personnel but also on their love does. Staff are given tablets at the Sarjapur police station. Harish added, “However when I came across this pressure cooker therapy, I decided to introduce it at the station.”

This trend is now being followed at Barke police station in Mangaluru where a steel pipe with four openings has been tied to a wooden frame. Cops can inhale through three vents while the fourth is connected to a pressure cooker through a rubber pipe.

Inspector Jyotirling Honakatti was the one how conceptualised this idea. He said he had inhaled steam in his house during his stint in Belagavi last year. He said, “When Police Commissioner N. Shashi Kumar asked us to take steps to prevent COVID-19 infection, I took his permission to have this facility at the police station.”

Many police stations in Shivamogga, Chitradurga, and Haveri districts have introduced this method and more are showing interest in the same. A police officer from Sarjapur said, “We are getting inquiries from colleagues in neighbouring stations.”