Indians Losing 5 Years Of Life Expectancy Due To Air Pollution: Report
NDTV
The residents of Delhi, the most polluted mega city in the world stand to lose 10 years of life expectancy if the current air pollution level persists, the report said.
Air pollution is the greatest threat to human health in India and the average Indian resident is set to lose five years of life expectancy if the WHO guidelines are not followed, according to the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago's (EPIC) Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) released on Tuesday.
The residents of Delhi, the most polluted mega city in the world with the average annual PM2.5 levels exceeding 107 micrograms per cubic metre or more than 21 times the WHO guidelines, stand to lose 10 years of life expectancy if the current air pollution level persists, the report said.
According to the new World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines issued last year, the average annual PM2.5 concentration should be no higher than five micrograms per cubic metre. It was 10 micrograms per cubic metre earlier.
Measured in terms of life expectancy, the AQLI shows that ambient particulate pollution is consistently the world's greatest risk to human health.
