NEW DELHI: Long-term exposure to outdoor and household air pollution contributed to over 6.7 million annual deaths globally, including 1.67 million in India, from stroke, heart attack, diabetes, lung cancer, chronic lung diseases, and neonatal diseases in 2019, says the annual 'State of Global Air 2020' report, released on Wednesday.
“Overall, air pollution is now the fourth highest cause of death among all health risks, ranking just below smoking and poor diet,” said the report, released by the Health Effects Institute (HEI), an independent, non-profit research institute funded jointly by the US Environmental Protection Agency, industry, foundations, and development banks.
As far as India is concerned, air pollution, overall, is now the largest risk factor for death among all health risks in the country.
The HEI, which for the first time did a comprehensive analysis of air pollution’s global impact on new-borns, found that “outdoor and household particulate matter (PM) pollution” contributed to the deaths of nearly 5,00,000 infants globally, including 1,16,000 Infants in India, in their first month of life.
The report noted that nearly two-thirds of those deaths were linked to use of solid fuels such as charcoal, wood, and animal dung for cooking, saying the most deaths for the youngest infants were related to complications from low birth weight and preterm birth.
This report's findings, based on the most recent Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study published in the international medical journal The Lancet, comes as Covid-19 has claimed more than 1 million lives. Although the full links between air pollution and Covid-19 are not yet known, the report claimed that there was clear evidence linking air pollution and increased heart and lung disease creating a growing concern that exposures to high levels of air pollution, especially those commonly experienced in countries of South and East Asia, could exacerbate the effects of Covid-19.
“The interaction of Covid-19 with the continued global rise in chronic illness and related risk factors, including obesity, high blood sugar, and outdoor air pollution, over the past 30 years has created a perfect storm, fuelling Covid-19 deaths,” said Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA, who led the GBD research.
In India, the study found progress in reducing “household air pollution exposures” but it said the levels were stagnant for outdoor PM2.5. It said more than half of these deaths in India were associated with outdoor PM2.5 and others were linked to use of solid fuels such as charcoal, wood, and animal dung for cooking.
“This evidence is a stark reminder of unrelenting and continuous worsening of health risk from air pollution in India. Not only the absolute death burden from PM2.5 is high, but it has also increased the maximum - by as much as 61% between 2010 and 2019. This gets more complex with ozone related deaths also recording the highest jump of 84%,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, air pollution expert and executive director of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
Reacting to the findings, she said, “Only ‘chulha’ pollution related health risk has declined due to improved access to clean energy. But the biggest shocker this time is the global evidence that air pollution accounts for 20% of new-born deaths worldwide, due to complications of low birth weight and preterm birth and mother’s toxic exposure. Imagine its implication for India with one of the highest deaths and disease burdens from air pollution. This only reaffirms why the national clean air programme has to be more exacting, legally binding and be the central focus of the green economic recovery agenda.”