Exact estimations of the impact of pollution on health remained "uncertain" due to dearth of relevant studies, a green body said today, days after a study revealed that India had the world's highest number of deaths due to different forms of pollution in 2015.
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) sought commissioning of studies to ascertain the impact of pollution on health.
"Although there is not sufficient evidence in terms of dose responses in the Indian context about impact of air pollution on human mortalities, the science which tells us about possible ways it impacts human health is well established.
"With extremely high pollutant concentrations, health impacts are expected to be high in India. However, exact estimations still remain uncertain due to dearth of relevant health impact studies," Sumit Sharma, Associate Director, TERI, said in a statement.
He said TERI "strongly recommends commissioning these studies, and in the meanwhile, actions for controlling air pollution must continue without any doubts".
According to a study published in the Lancet journal recently, India had the world's highest number of deaths due to air, water and other forms of pollution in 2015 and that pollution killed as many as 2.5 million people in the country.
Most of these deaths are due to non-communicable diseases caused by pollution such as heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), researchers said.
According to the study, air pollution is the biggest contributor, linked to 6.5 million deaths in 2015 in the world while water pollution (1.8 million deaths) and workplace- related pollution (0.8 million deaths) pose the next largest risks.
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