India's Poorest 10% Face 9x Pollution Risk Than Richest 10%: Study

Previous research has shown that the richest individuals bear an outsized responsibility for air pollution due to their consumption-heavy lifestyles.

The poorest 10 percent of Indians face a risk of dying from air pollution that is nine times higher than for the richest 10 percent, according to research released Monday. Fine particles (PM2.5) generated from burning fossil fuels, farming practices and wood-burning stoves contribute to a host of health problems and are behind most of the eight million air pollution-related deaths worldwide each year. Previous research has shown that the richest individuals bear an outsized responsibility for air pollution due to their consumption-heavy lifestyles. Researchers based in Europe and the US wanted to see how wealth is linked to air pollution exposure in Earth's second most populous nation.