14 Indian cities among 20 most polluted

9 out of 10 people in the world breathe polluted air, says WHO

New Delhi, May 2: Delhi and Varanasi are among the 14 Indian cities that figured in a list of 20 most polluted cities in the world in terms of PM2.5 levels in 2016, data by the WHO showed on Wednesday.

The WHO data also said that nine out of 10 people in the world breathe air containing high levels of pollutants. Other Indian cities that registered very high levels of PM2.5 pollutants were Kanpur, Faridabad, Gaya, Patna, Agra, Muzaffarpur, Srinagar, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Patiala and Jodhpur followed by Ali Subah Al-Salem in Kuwait and a few cities in China and Mongolia.

In terms of PM10 levels, 13 cities in India figured among the 20 most-polluted cities of the world in 2016.

The World Health Organisation has called upon member-countries in its South-East Asia Region to aggressively address the double burden of household and ambient (outdoor)

The South-East Asia Region accounts for 34 pc of the seven million premature deaths caused by household and ambient air pollution globally.

air pollution, saying the region, which comprises India, accounts for 34 pc or 2.4 million of the seven million premature deaths caused by household and ambient air pollution together globally every year. Of the 3.8 million deaths caused by household air pollution globally, the region accounts for 1.5 million or 40 per cent deaths, and of the 4.2 million global deaths due to ambient air pollution, 1.3 million or 30 per cent are reported from the region.

The PM2.5 includes pollutants like sulfate, nitrate which pose the greatest risk to human health.

WHO’s urban air pollution database measured the levels of fine particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) from over 4,300 cities in 108 countries, according to which ambient air pollution alone caused 4.2 million deaths in 2016, while household air pollution from cooking with polluting fuels and technologies caused an estimated 3.8 million deaths in the same period.