Pollution claimed 90 lakh lives in 2019 — equivalent to one in six deaths worldwide — with India topping the list by registering over 23 lakh mortalities, according to a study published on Wednesday in The Lancet Planetary Health. Globally, air pollution alone contributed to 66.7 lakh deaths.
In India, out of 16.7 lakh air pollution-related deaths, 9.8 lakh were caused by PM2.5 pollution, and another 6.1 lakh by household air pollution.
Although the number of deaths from pollution sources associated with extreme poverty (such as indoor air pollution and water pollution) has decreased, these reductions are offset by increased deaths attributable to industrial pollution (such as ambient air pollution and chemical pollution), the report noted.
Overall, global ambient air pollution was responsible for 45 lakh deaths, and hazardous chemical pollutants for 17 lakh, with 9 lakh deaths attributable to lead pollution.
Nearly 93 per cent of India lives in areas where air quality is below WHO’s standards, says the study. In an update of a 2015 estimate on premature deaths caused by pollution, the study said data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors Study 2019 (GBD) showed that pollution “remains responsible for approximately nine million deaths per year.”
According to the report, air pollution is most severe in the Indo-Gangetic Plain which covers New Delhi and many of the most polluted cities. Burning of biomass in households was the single largest cause of air pollution deaths in India, followed by coal combustion and crop burning.
Between 2000 and 2019, economic losses caused by modern forms of pollution — ambient, chemical and lead pollution — have increased and are now “conservatively estimated to amount to approximately 1 per cent of GDP” in India.
The study noted that despite India’s considerable efforts against household air pollution, including through the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana programme, the number of deaths remained high.
It pointed out that India has developed a National Clean Air Programme, and in 2019 launched a Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region.
However, India does not have a strong centralised administrative system to drive its air pollution control efforts and consequently improvements in overall air quality have been limited and uneven.
"India has developed instruments and regulatory powers to mitigate pollution sources but there is no centralised system to drive pollution control efforts and achieve substantial improvements," the study said adding that in 93 per cent of the country, the amount of pollution remains well above the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.
Professor Kalpana Balakrishnan, Dean (Research), Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (Deemed to be University), Chennai, and one of the authors of the report, stressed the need for a radical shift in the approach to pollution management efforts
