Javadekar slams air pollution study

After going back once on his statement, minister again slams report by government's premier institution

The Union environment, forests and climate change minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday came back to again rubbish the study conducted by government’s Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology which concludes that on average Indian’s are losing 3.4 years of life due to exposure to particulate matter below 2.5 microns (PM2.5) and ozone pollution.

The minister had made a similar statement on Tuesday and then withdrawn it as sections of media reported it as a difference of views between the environment ministry and the ministry of earth sciences, which is the nodal administrator for the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM).

WHAT DOES THE STUDY SAY?

• The study estimates that exposure to high levels of PM2.5 leads to about 570,000 premature deaths in 2011
• It projects that the highest loss of life due to pollution is in Delhi, with the average citizen losing 6.3 years of life due to the exposure

 

On Wednesday Javadekar claimed the ministry of earth sciences was with him in rejecting the findings of the report. “The Ministry of Earth Sciences does not agree with the study and has completely rejected the study. The Ministry of Earth Sciences has made it clear that it does not subscribe to any of the conclusions emerging out of the reported study. The study is based on regional atmospheric chemistry model and statistical algorithm to construct estimates and this is based on studies in Europe and America, which have been extrapolated on India.”

He added, “This study has not been done on sampling, it has not been done on ground studying and it is not based on long-term observations.”

The earth sciences ministry did not put out a separate media statement rejecting the study by its institute unlike the environment ministry.

After his briefing to media on Wednesday rejecting the study, environment minister Prakash Javadekar met the earth sciences science secretary.  

The study, reported in some newspapers on Tuesday, estimates that exposure to high levels of PM2.5  lead to about 570,000 premature deaths in 2011. It projects that the highest loss of life due to pollution was in Delhi with the average citizen losing 6.3 years of life due to the exposure. The study, as is practice, details how the projections were modelled and does not claim to have been done through epidemiological assessments.

IITM is India’s premier institute for studying atmosphere sciences and the research was carried out under a joint programme between it and National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA funded by the US National Science Foundation. The study, which was published in well regarded peer viewed journal Geophyiscal Research Letters, uses a standard technique of modelling used in Europe and the US to project the chemical composition of the atmosphere. The minister said the study was not based on any ground-toothing.

Speaking on the basis of anonymity, a senior official of the earth sciences ministry said, “It is an academically fit study. But, sometimes when these studies get published in popular media, a projection and modelling based exercise can be viewed as more than that. We don’t have similar models in India so this was part of a long-term research to develop the atmospheric chemical composition model.”

The minister while blaming the previous government for inaction over the past decade noted that other developed and developing countries too faced problems of pollution. “Ozone is a pollutant that has an adverse impact on life and which is predominantly present in California. NOx is another pollutant, which is present much more in Mexico, UAE and China, than in India. SOx is also another pollutant that is serious. Every pollutant adversely affects health. So, on different pollutants, countries have different experiences and different status.”