Air pollution kills over 1m each year

More people died last year in the country because of bad air than from tobacco use

At least 1 in 8 deaths in India can be attributed to air pollution, according to a new nationwide study that serves as the latest grim addition to research on the long-term health effects of the country’s bad air.

More people died last year in India because of air pollution than from tobacco use, according to the study published Thursday in the journal Lancet Planetary Health.

The fact that pollution is behind 1 in 8 deaths is “remarkable,” said Lalit Dandoni, director of the India State Level Disease Burden Initiative, which conducted the study. “We’ve always thought of it as high, but to see it like that is quite a massive impact on health.”

Complex phenomenon

The study found that 77 per cent of the country’s population is exposed to levels of harmful particulate matter that exceed the standard set by the Indian government. That threshold is already four times the limit recommended by the World Health Organisation.

Air pollution in India is a complex phenomenon with multiple sources that include car exhaust, industrial emissions, construction dust and the burning of crop residues. The use of wood, charcoal and dried dung for fuel and heating also creates harmful pollution within rural homes.

The phenomenon is most intense in northern India and the country’s capital of New Delhi during the winter months. That’s when temperatures drop and wind speeds fall, trapping pollutants.

The study examined diseases for which it found firm evidence of causation by air pollution. It estimated that 1.24 million deaths last year — or 12.5 per cent of the total — could be attributed to air pollution.

Dandoni, the lead author of the Lancet study published on Thursday, said that he saw a very thin silver lining in the otherwise dire figures. Indian policymakers have shown strong interest in the results, he said. “Now a much larger proportion of the public and policymakers are convinced that something should be done,” Dandoni added.