Air pollution could knock 9 years off the life of people in India, study says

The air pollution in India is so bad that it could be reducing the life expectancy of hundreds of millions of people by as much as nine years, according to a new study.

The report, released Wednesday by the United States-based research group Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), found that all of India's 1.3 billion residents face annual average pollution levels that exceed guidelines as set by the World Health Organization. The central Indian government announced a national clean air campaign in 2019, that aimed to reduce particulate pollution by up to 30% by 2024. But in the past few years, pollution has only gotten worse, especially in the western state of Maharashtra and the central state of Madhya Pradesh, said the report.