India saw over 23.5 lakh deaths due to pollution, topped list in 2019: Lancet Study
Another 6.1 lakh deaths were attributed to residential air pollution, according to the report. Pollution of any form was responsible for nine million fatalities globally in 2019 – one in every six deaths. Air pollution, including indoor and outdoor, was the leading cause of mortality, accounting for 6.67 million fatalities globally.
FollowIndia had over 23.5 lakh premature deaths owing to pollution of all forms in 2019, including 16.7 lakh fatalities attributable by air pollution, the most among all countries globally, according to a recent report published in The Lancet Planetary Health journal. According to the study, the bulk of air pollution-related fatalities in India (9.8 lakh) were caused by ambient PM2.5 pollution, which consists of microscopic pollution particles in the air that are two and a half millimetres or less in diameter.
Another 6.1 lakh deaths were attributed to residential air pollution, according to the report. Pollution of any form was responsible for nine million fatalities globally in 2019 – one in every six deaths. Air pollution, including indoor and outdoor, was the leading cause of mortality, accounting for 6.67 million fatalities globally.
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"Pollution continues to have tremendous health consequences, with low- and middle-income nations bearing the brunt of the load. Pollution prevention is frequently ignored in the international development agenda, despite its tremendous health, social, and economic consequences," Richard Fuller of the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution in Geneva, Switzerland, was the study's principal author.
"Despite well-documented increases in public concern about pollution and its health implications, attention and financing have only been modestly boosted since 2015," Fuller said in a statement.
According to the researchers, air pollution in India is worse in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (northern India), where terrain and meteorological concentrate pollutants from energy, movement, industry, agriculture, and other activities.
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The study found that domestic biomass burning was the single leading cause of air pollution mortality in India, followed by coal combustion and crop burning. According to the survey, India's PM2.5 pollution levels remain considerably over World Health Organization (WHO) limits of 10 micrograms per cubic metre throughout 93% of the nation.
The WHO has revised its health-based global air quality recommendations, cutting the PM25 guideline value from 10 to 5 micrograms per cubic metre. Traditional pollution (household air pollution from solid fuels and poor water, sanitation, and hand washing) has cut deaths in India by more than 50% since 2000, according to the research.
