Air pollution is responsible for 7% of deaths in major Indian cities: study

More than seven percent of all deaths in 10 of India’s biggest cities are linked to air pollution, a major study showed Thursday, prompting researchers to call for action to save tens of thousands of lives a year.

Smog-filled Indian cities, including the capital Delhi, suffer from some of the worst air pollution in the world, choking residents’ lungs and posing a growing health threat, which researchers are still revealing.

For the new study, an Indian-led team looked at the levels of cancer-causing microparticles known as PM2.5 pollutants in the cities of Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Shimla and Varanasi .

From 2008 to 2019, more than 33,000 deaths per year could be attributed to exposure to PM2.5 above the World Health Organization’s recommendation of 15 micrograms per cubic meter, the study said.

That represents 7.2 percent of recorded deaths in those cities during that period, according to the study The Lancet Planetary Health log.

The Indian capital Delhi was the biggest offender, with 12,000 deaths annually from air pollution – or 11.5 percent of the total.

But even cities where air pollution is not considered that bad – such as Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai – had high death rates, the researchers pointed out.

They called for a tightening of India’s air quality standards.

The country’s current recommendation is 60 micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic meter, which is four times higher than WHO guidelines.

Lowering and maintaining the limit “will save tens of thousands of lives every year,” said co-author Joel Schwartz of Harvard University.

“Methods to control pollution exist and are used elsewhere. They need to be urgently implemented in India,” he said in a statement.

The WHO says almost everyone on Earth breathes more than the recommended amount of air pollution, which can cause strokes, heart disease, lung cancer and other respiratory diseases.

© 2024 AFP