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However, in the months of October and November, the pollution grows still more intense because of farmland fires.īesides India, the EPIC report also spoke of air pollution across the world. That report had stated that the air pollutant levels in Delhi remained almost six times above the prescribed WHO limits.Īccording to a report by the think tank Observer Research Foundation, industrial pollution and vehicular emissions are some of the greatest factors accounting for toxic air the whole year round. Similarly, a Greenpeace Southeast Asia analysis of IQAir data reported that air pollution had claimed around 54,000 deaths in Delhi in 2020. This was the largest number of air pollution-related deaths in any country. The EPIC report once again puts the spotlight on the issue of air pollution and the many dangers its poses.Ī Lancet report of 2019 had stated that 16.7 lakh people died in India alone due to air pollution. While NCAP targets are non-binding, experts say, if India were to achieve and sustain this reduction, it would lead to remarkable health improvements. In 2019, government launched its National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) with a goal to reduce particulate pollution by 20 to 30 per cent, relative to 2017 levels, by 2024. The report also acknowledged efforts taken by the government to fight air pollution. Shockingly, since 2013, about 44 per cent of the global pollution has come from India - currently the second most polluted country in the world. The report added that reducing pollution levels to WHO standards would mean that an estimated 240 million people in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh would gain 10 years in life expectancy.
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Incidentally, PM 2.5 is an extremely tiny particulate matter made of toxic substances which settles deep in the lungs and other organs, beating the body’s defences. India’s pollution levels can be attributed to “industrialisation, economic development, and population growth”, apart from a four-fold rise in road vehicles since the early 2000s.Īs per findings in the report, Delhi’s PM 2.5 level measured 107.6, over 10 times the WHO’s safe limit of just five.
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It also stated that some 510 million people who live in northern India - nearly 40 per cent of the country’s population - are “on track” to lose 7.6 years of their lives on average, given the current pollution levels. The report says that India’s 1.3 billion people live in areas where the “annual average particulate pollution level” exceeds the World Health Organization (WHO) safe limit of 5µg/m³. We decode what the report stated and how much of a worry is air pollution for India? “This is similar to that situation that prevails in many parts of the world, except we are spraying the substance, not some invaders from outer space.” Speaking on the matter of air pollution across the world, Michael Greenstone, one of the authors of the report, was quoted as saying, “It would be a global emergency if Martians came to Earth and sprayed a substance that caused the average person on the planet to lose more than two years of life expectancy.”
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Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) June 10, 2022 Working unseen inside the human body, particulate #pollution has a more devastating impact on life expectancy than communicable diseases like tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, behavioral killers like cigarette smoking, and even war.