Air pollution kills more than 1 million a year in India, study says

NEW DELHI — 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 study found that 77 percent 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 Organization.