Every 10 micrograms per cubic metre of air increase in annual exposure to fine particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) is associated with an 8.6 per cent increased risk for mortality across India, finds a study on Thursday.
The
study, published in the journal Lancet Planetary Health, revealed that
long-term exposure to PM2.5 pollution concentrations higher than the 5
micrograms per cubic meter annual average recommended by the WHO is potentially
associated with 1.5 million deaths a year in India.
The findings showed that the 1.4 billion people in India live in areas with
PM2.5 concentrations above that recommended by the WHO guidelines.
"High levels of annual PM2.5 exposures are observed in
India causing a huge mortality burden (not limited to cities that are
highlighted during the extreme pollution episodes), signaling the need for
systematic and not symptomatic approach,” said Suganthi Jaganathan, doctoral
researcher, Centre for Health Analytics Research and Trends (CHART), Ashoka
University.
The study observed that the risk is high even at lower
levels of air pollution. This indicates the need to reduce air pollution levels
across the country.
Unlike previous studies, this study used PM2.5 exposure
from a fine spatiotemporal model built for India and annual mortality counts
reported across all districts of India.
During the study period (2009 to 2019), 25 per cent of all
deaths (about 1.5 million deaths a year) were attributed to annual PM2.5
exposure higher than the WHO guideline.
About 0.3 million annual deaths are also attributed to
annual exposure to PM2.5 above the Indian National Ambient Air Quality
Standards (NAAQS).
The exposure-response function revealed a higher
incremental risk for mortality at lower PM2.5 concentrations and leveling off
at higher PM2.5 concentrations.
“Delhi may get the headlines, but this is a problem all
over India, and nationwide efforts are needed. Coal-burning electric plants
need scrubbers, crop burning needs to be limited, and most importantly, we need
urgent measures to protect population health,” said Joel Schwartz, Professor,
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and principal investigator from the
US for the CHAIR-India consortium.
The study was led by the CHAIR-India consortium,
established in May 2019, comprised of leading Indian academic institutions such
as the Centre for Health Analytics Research and Trends (CHART) at Ashoka
University, the Centre for Chronic Disease Control (CCDC) and global
institutions like Karolinska Institutet (Stockholm, Sweden), Harvard
University, Boston University, among others.
No comments:
Post a Comment