Air pollution kills 33,000 in Indian cities annually, Delhi tops list

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

Over seven percent of all deaths (approximately 33,000 each year) in 10 cities in India annually can be attributed to air pollution levels that are below India's national clean air threshold, the report published in Lancet Planetary Health has claimed. 

Smog-filled Indian cities, including the national capital Delhi, experience the ill effects of the world's worst air pollution, choking the lungs of residents representing a rising danger to well-being still being disclosed by researchers.

Air Pollution in Indian cities: More about the cities

The study analysed the effect of PM.2.5 level pollutants in major cities which included Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Shimla and Varanasi. It revealed that 99.8% of the days, PM2.5 levels exceeded the WHO's safe limits of 15 micrograms per cubic metre, which are tiny pollutants that can get deep into the lungs and bloodstream. 

 

Delhi experienced the highest percentage of daily and yearly deaths attributable to PM2.5 air pollution, which contains particles 2.5 micrometres or less in diameter, the study mentioned. 

These dangerous particles originate mainly from vehicular and industrial emissions. Every year, the national capital records around 12,000 deaths connected to air pollution, adding up to a staggering 11.5 percent of its overall deaths.

What researchers have to say about the increasing air pollution and deaths in the Indian cities?

Bhargav Krishna, fellow at the Sustainable Futures Collaborative and the study’s lead author said that, “the significant effects we are observing even below the Indian air quality limits are alarming suggesting that perhaps we have set our standards higher than they should be". 

Between 2008 and 2019, the researchers looked at 3.6 million deaths in the sample areas and compared them to a detailed map of the distribution of PM 2.5, a compound of pollutants that cause cancer and are so small they can enter the bloodstream. 

They found that an exposure as short as 48 hours to elevated degrees of the particles could lessen life expectancy at a collective level, with 7.2% of all fatalities connected to PM 2.5 concentrations over the World Health Organization standard of 15 micrograms per cubic metre.

What about the other cities of India suffering from air pollution?

Varanasi logged the second biggest number of deaths during the period, 10.2% or around 830 deaths per year, inferable to short-term PM2.5 exposure higher than the WHO guidelines. During the study period, an estimated 2,100 people died in Bengaluru, 2,900 in Chennai, 4,700 in Kolkata, and 5,100 in Mumbai annually due to rising air pollution. 

Indeed, even in the Himalayan town of Shimla, which had the cleanest air among the Indian cities contaminated, 3.7% of all deaths were pollution related, the study mentioned.

Who has conducted the air pollution report of India?

The study was led by researchers from Ashoka University, Centre for Chronic Disease Control, Sustainable Futures Collaborative, Sweden's Karolinska Institutet, Harvard and Boston Universities, and different spots. 

There was a steep rise in the risk of deaths at lower concentrations of PM2.5 and tapering off at higher concentrations, with massive impacts seen below the ongoing National Ambient Air Quality Standard of 60 micrograms per cubic meter of air for a 24-hour exposure, it stated.