Air Pollution Death

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Tuesday wrote letters to the transport ministers of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, urging them to ensure no diesel buses from their states plied to the national capital in view of GRAP II restrictions in place. With the air quality in Delhi plummeting, Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) second stage restrictions kicked in from 8 am. Rai announced a slew of measures, including enhanced water sprinkling to control road dust, use of dust suppressants and deployment of additional traffic personnel to ease traffic congestion, among others. Rai said in his letters that a major component of this air pollution is vehicular emissions largely attributed to the significant number of diesel buses reaching Delhi from their states. "The impact of diesel emissions on air quality is well established and the large influx of such buses significantly contribute to the degradation of air quality in Delhi, posing serious health risks to the residents," he

A new report has revealed that the drop in particulate matter levels across India and other South Asian countries was largely due to favourable weather conditions and fewer thermal inversions

According to Lancet Planetary Health, almost 33,000 deaths in 10 Indian cities yearly can be attributed to air pollution levels that are below India's national clean air threshold

The researchers looked at 3.6 million deaths between 2008 and 2019 across the sample areas, and overlapped them with a detailed map of the distribution of PM 2.5

On average, 7.2 per cent of all daily deaths in 10 of the largest and most polluted cities in India, including Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai, were linked to PM2.5 levels higher than World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for safe exposure, according to a study published in The Lancet Planetary Health journal. Delhi was found to have the largest fraction of daily and yearly deaths attributable to PM2.5 air pollution, caused by particles sized 2.5 micrometres or less in diameter. Sources of such pollution include vehicular and industrial emissions. Researchers said that daily exposure to PM2.5 pollution in Indian cities is linked with a higher risk of death, and locally created pollution could be possibly causing these deaths. The international team included researchers from Varanasi's Banaras Hindu University and the Centre for Chronic Disease Control, New Delhi. They found that an increase of 10 micrograms per cubic metre in the average of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) polluti

Air pollution is now the second major cause of child mortality around the world. The State of Global Air report indicates about half a million child deaths in 2021 linked to indoor air pollution

Delhi's summer action plan to control air pollution in the national capital will come into effect from June 15, Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Thursday. The city government has come up with a summer action plan, which will mainly focus on tree plantation, Rai said at a press conference. "We held a meeting on Thursday in which 30 departments participated. The focus of the summer action plan will be on tree plantation. From June 15 to September 15, the government will work by focusing on 12 key points of the summer action plan," he said. The greening agencies have been directed to prepare their action plans, he added. Delhi's Air Quality Index (AQI) fluctuated between 'moderate' and 'poor' during May 24 to June 12, Rai said and added that dust particles play an important role in summer pollution. All the agencies will jointly run an anti-dust campaign from June 15 to June 30. For this, 580 patrolling teams will go on inspections and monitor if dust control measures at ...

Aizwal, the capital city of Mizoram registered the best air quality with an Air quality index value of 18

Though Delhi recorded a brief improvement in air quality last week, city hospitals continue to report a rise in the number of patients visiting hospitals for respiratory issues, prolonged coughing, throat infections and eye irritation. The national capital experienced 'very poor' to 'severe' air quality for two weeks starting October 28 with a suffocating haze lingering over the city during the period. Intermittent rain led to a rapid improvement in Delhi's air quality on Friday by over 150 points. However, the respite was short-lived as people flouted the ban on firecrackers on Diwali on Sunday, leading to a jump in pollution levels. Doctors at many government-run and private hospitals said the rise in cases of prolonged coughing, throat infection, eye irritation, nasal discharge and asthma exacerbation continues. Out-patient department (OPD) footfalls may have gone down "very slightly" as people generally avoid going to hospitals during the festive season. "We barely witnessed tw

As severely-polluted air has choked Delhi, doctors in the city have warned people, saying air pollution affects not just the lungs, but also other major organs, such as the heart and the brain, across all age groups. There has been a sudden increase in cases of headache, anxiety, irritation, confusion and decrement of cognitive abilities, especially among the vulnerable populations such as the elderly, schoolgoing children and pregnant women, Dr Neeraj Gupta, head of the pulmonary medicine department at the Safdarjung Hospital, told PTI. "Neurocognitive ability is directly linked to rising nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide in the air as they impact the nervous system. "So gas chamber is a technically correct term to be used because of the rise of the concentration of harmful gases and not just particulate matter," he said. Gupta further said a study conducted in North Carolina among schoolgoing children has shown that the Air Quality Index (AQI) has a direct imp

Delhi and Kolkata reported 106 and 99 deaths per 1 lakh population in 2019 which could be attributed to PM2.5 pollution, according to a new report published by US-based Health Effects Institute on Wednesday. In 2019, Delhi recorded an annual average PM2.5 concentration of 110 microgram per cubic metre, the highest among the most-populous cities in the world, followed by Kolkata (84 microgram per cubic metre), said the report "Air Quality and Health in Cities" by the State of Global Air Initiative, a collaboration between the Health Effects Institute and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation's Global Burden of Disease project. The report summarizes data on air pollution exposures and associated health impacts in 7,239 cities (with minimum population of 50,000) from 2010 to 2019. It combines ground-based air quality data with satellites and models to produce air quality estimates for cities around the world. PM2.5 refers to fine particles (measuring 2.5 m or less in diameter

The report revealed that life expectancy in India, as a result, has been shortened by about 1.5 years

In the US, the researchers found that 350,000 premature deaths per year are attributable to fine-particulate pollution generated by fossil-fuel combustion

A study published last year in The Lancet journal found that one out of every eight deaths in India in 2017 could be attributed to air pollution

The bottom line is we need tough action and at scale - it must be transformative enough so that it can beat the galloping pollution

The report said that over 61% of total deaths in India were attributed to lifestyle or non-communicable diseases