Air pollution claims 33,000 lives annually in India despite meeting National standards: Report
The study highlighted that even though the air quality in these cities is within the national fresh air threshold, daily mortality rates are increasing
According to a recent report published in the Lancet Planetary Health, India records nearly 33,000 deaths every year in 10 cities due to air pollution, despite meeting the country’s fresh air norms.
India’s clean air standards are currently above the World Health Organization’s (WHO) norms. The report highlighted that the deaths can be attributed to PM 2.5 pollution levels that exceed the WHO standards of only 15 micrograms per cubic meter. The national standard for fine, particulate matter or PM 2.5 (24 hours) is 60 micrograms per cubic meter.
The study highlighted that even though the air quality in these cities is within the national fresh air threshold, daily mortality rates are increasing. It also suggested that India’s standards should be more stringent and match WHO’s norms.
“Across 10 cities in the country – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Shimla, and Varanasi, around 33,000 deaths per year can be attributed to air pollution levels that are above the WHO guidelines.” the study revealed.
“A significant number of deaths were observed even in cities not considered to have high air pollution, such as Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Chennai,” it added.
Call for Stricter National Air Quality Standards
“India’s national air quality standards should be made more stringent, and efforts to control air pollution redoubled.”
As per the data collected between 2008 and 2019, 7.2% of all deaths (approximately 33,000 each year) across these 10 cities are caused by short-term PM2.5 exposure, the study claimed that it was higher than the WHO guideline value of 15 micrograms in every cubic meter of air.
“Every 10 micrograms in every cubic meter of air increase in short-term PM2.5 exposure was associated with a 1.42% increase in daily deaths. This estimate nearly doubled to 3.57% when we used a causal modelling approach that isolates the impact of local sources of air pollution,” the release said.
Out of all these 10 cities Delhi recorded the highest deaths related to air pollution. The study showed that 11.5% which is around 12,000 deaths per year. Varanasi recorded nearly 10.2% of all deaths (830 each year) during the study period.
The report revealed that nearly 2,100 died in Bengaluru, 2,900 in Chennai, 4,700 in Kolkata, and around 5,100 each year in Mumbai due to the rising air pollution. All the deaths were attributed to short-term PM2.5 exposure higher than the WHO guideline value.
Meanwhile, the lowest air pollution levels out of these 10 cities were recorded in Shimla, but the air pollution was still deadly in the hill station as it accounted for 3.7% of all deaths (approximately 59 per year).
“The results from Shimla add credence to global evidence that there is no safe level of air pollution exposure,” the study claimed.
“Every 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air increase in short-term PM.s exposure was associated with a 0.31% increase in daily deaths.”
Some researchers from Sustainable Futures Collaborative, Ashoka University, Centre for Chronic Disease Control, Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, and Harvard and Boston Universities, conducted this study.
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