As per a recent survey, the risks from air pollution are now far greater than previously thought or understood, particularly for heart disease and strokes. Only a few other factors have greater impact on global health today than air pollution. The evidence clearly signals need for concerted action to clean up the air we all breathe.
Regionally, low- and middle-income countries in the WHO South-East Asia and Western Pacific Regions had the largest air pollution-related burden in 2012, with a total of 3.3 million deaths. Generally Pollution is measured by the average number of tiny particles in the air per cubic metre.
As per WHO, South-east Asia is now the most polluted region in the world. This reflects the explosive growth of cities and industrial development in China and India, as well as deep poverty in rural areas. Fine particle air pollution in India is far above the desired limits of 100 microgramme per cubic metre. This can rise to nearly 1,000 microgrammes during festivals like Diwali.
A Lancet study last
year suggested that the surge in car use in south and
east Asia killed 2.1 million people prematurely in 2010. Other causes of air
pollution include construction and industry. Of these deaths, says the study
published in The Lancet, 1.2 million were in east Asia and China,
and 712,000 in south Asia, including India. Apart from deaths, survey also states that the changes in climate affect
human health. The effects of climate change on human health are of particular
concern to the physician and scientist community.
We have the
tools and the knowledge needed to improve the quality of the air we breathe,
while simultaneously slowing climate change and reducing the substantial
economic and human toll of both air pollution and climate change. What is
needed now are sufficient resources and bold political action to make
achievement of both of these two concordant goals a reality.
Earlier this month, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang classified
air pollution as a top priority for
the nation's authorities. China
is now using drones to
spy on industries in Beijing
and other cities where illegal polluting may be contributing to the nation's
smog problem
India can save up to 2 billion lives a years if the places that exceed the national air quality standards (very polluted) were brought within standards, US based economist, Michael Greenstone has estimated. Greenstone who is 3M professor of Environmental Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said around 281 districts with a population of 628 million people live in highly polluted areas that don't meet the air quality standard.
Greenstone's estimates are based on data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and other studies which show that 52% of India's population is living in areas that are monitored by CPCB, where PM 2.5 (very fine respirable particles) level is higher than the safe standard. Over 80% of the population is living in areas where PM 10 (coarse particles) levels are higher than the safe standard.
Greenstone had conducted a similar "quasi-experimental" study on air pollution in China which assessed the life expectancy of a population North of Huai river where a lot of coal power plants were located due to a home heating policy and compared it with South of Huai river where no such policy existed. Life expectancy of those North of Huai river were found to be far lesser. A similar model of experiment is used in case of India to see if all the polluted places meet the PM 2.5 standard, what difference would it make on life-expectancy.
Greenstone found that each person living in these areas may gain 3.3 years of life in India. The mean PM 2.5 levels in these areas is 72 microgram per cubic metre when the national safe standard is only 40 microgram per cubic metre. "China is making big strides in dealing with air pollution. India too is very highly polluted and needs to make policy to deal with it. WHO has recently released data that 1 in 8 deaths were due to air pollution in 2012. The majority of the impact is borne by South East Asia," said Greenstone who was also the chief economist President Obama's Council of Economic Advisors .
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