North Indians to lose 7.6 yrs of life due to pollution: Study
About 51 crore people living in north India are on track to lose 7.6 years of their life if the current air pollution levels persist, says a study, that calls pollution the greatest threat to human health in the country.
Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC)’s Air Quality Life Index said about 44 per cent of the world’s increase in pollution has come from India since 2013. Since 1998, India’s average annual particulate pollution has increased by 61.4 %, it added.
As per Air Quality Life Index’s (AQLI) new analysis, air pollution shortens average Indian life expectancy by five years, and in the Indo-Gangetic plains of northern India, 510 million residents, nearly 40 per cent of the country’s population, are on track to lose 7.6 years of their life expectancy on average if current pollution levels persist.
India is the world’s second most polluted country after Bangladesh. While some areas of the country are much worse than average, the air pollution is shortening lives by almost 10 years in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, the most polluted city in the world, the study noted.
The analysis said Delhi stands to gain life expectancy by 10 years on average if annual average pollution levels do not exceed five micrograms per cubic metre.
It said all of India’s 1.3 billion people live in areas where the annual average particulate pollution level exceeds the WHO guideline.
“More than 63% of the population live in areas that exceed the country’s own national air quality standard of 40 μg/m3. Measured in terms of life expectancy, particulate pollution is the greatest threat to human health in India, reducing life expectancy by 5 years,” the study said. In no region of the world is the deadly impact of pollution more visible than in South Asia, where over half of the life burden of pollution occurs, the study further said.