Over 30% deaths in ’18 caused by fossil fuels: Study
NEW DELHI: Over 30% of deaths in India in 2018 were caused by air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels, a new study conducted by scientists from Harvard University, University of Birmingham, the University of Leicester and University College London have found. Researchers estimated that exposure to particulate matter from fossil fuel emissions accounted for 18% of total global deaths in 2018, which was around one out of five.
The study, which has been published in Environmental Research, a peer-reviewed journal, states that more than 8 million people are killed each year by air pollution from burning fossil fuels like coal and diesel. However, topping the global charts in the most number of such deaths was India and China.
China had the highest premature mortality with 3.91 million deaths and India accounted for 2.46 million deaths.
Data collected by the researchers showed that in India, Uttar Pradesh reported the maximum deaths caused by exposure to fossil fuel fumes — or 471,456 additional deaths. This was followed by Bihar with 288,821 deaths caused by fossil fuel burning and West Bengal, where 276,312 such deaths took place. The study also said that Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu also reported over 100,000 (each) such deaths.
Scientists said that while previous researches on similar areas relied on satellite and surface observations to estimate the average global annual concentrations of airborne particulate matter, known as PM2.5 (ultrafine particulate matter with diameter less than 2.5 micrometres), the satellite and surface observations were unable to tell the difference between particles from fossil fuel emissions and those from dust, wildfire smoke or other sources.
In this study, however, the scientists have used a more advanced technology of GEOSCHEM, a global 3D model of atmospheric chemistry, which has a high spatial resolution.
This means that the researchers could divide the globe into a grid with boxes as small as 50 km x 60 km and look at pollution levels in each box individually. “Rather than rely on averages spread across large regions, we wanted to map where the pollution is and where people live, so we could know more (about) exactly what people are breathing,” said Karn Vohra, a graduate student at the University of Birmingham and first author of the study.
Environment and health experts stressed on the need for governments to control the use of fossil fuels and check on the emissions caused by it, to prevent such premature deaths.
“When we see that deaths from fossil fuel combustion exceed deaths from malaria by a factor of 20, we must recognise that this is a major global health crisis,” said Sarah Hsu, executive vice chair, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. “...As healthcare workers, we have the obligation and opportunity to save millions of lives by advocating for clean energy, divesting from fossil fuels, and de-carbonizing our healthcare facilities,” Hsu said.