Indians losing 5 years of life due to air pollution: Report

According to a study by Air Quality Life Index, air pollution shortens the average Indian life expectancy by five years.

According to a report by Air Quality Life Index, air pollution shortens average Indian life expectancy by five years, relative to what it would be if the World Health Organisation guidelines were met. (5 µg/m3).

The study also states that particulate air pollution takes 2.2 years off global life expectancy, or a combined 17 billion life years, relative to a world that met the WHO guideline.

This impact on life expectancy is comparable to that of smoking, more than three times that of alcohol use and unsafe water, six times that of HIV/AIDS, and 89 times that of conflict and terrorism.

The WHO recently revised its guidelines -from 10 µg/m³ to 5 µg/m³- for what it considers a safe level of exposure to particulate pollution, bringing most of the world—97.3 percent of the global population—into the unsafe zone.

The report states that in no region of the world is the deadly impact of pollution more visible than in South Asia, where more than half of the life burden of pollution occurs.

Residents there are expected to lose about five years of their lives on average if the current high levels of pollution persist, and more in the most polluted regions. Since 2013, about 44 percent of the world’s increase in pollution has come from India, the reports said.

Since 1998, India’s average annual particulate pollution has increased by 61.4 percent, and currently, it stands as the world’s second most polluted country.