Published On : Sun, Oct 22nd, 2017

India’s dubious distinction – tops world in pollution deaths with Delhi and Patna being the worst

Advertisement
Air pollution

File Pic

Patna: Pollution killed 25 lakh Indians in 2015. The highest in the world, even more than in China which is the country with the highest population. In China, the figure is 18 lakhs.

In India, over 18 lakh lives were snuffed out by foul air alone as per a global panel of public health experts.

Most of these deaths were caused by heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, triggered by pollution.

Air pollution apart, water pollution killed nearly 6.46 lakh Indians.

Other forms of pollution, including passive smoking and exposure to lead, resulted in the death of another 1.68 lakh people, according to the report published in the journal Lancet.

The figures are based on data obtained from more than 75 Indian sites, spewing pollution.

What is most alarming is that this figure is increasing rapidly every year.

The air Indians breathe is turning more toxic by the day and an average of two deaths take every minute due to air pollution, a study had said last year. But based on 2010 figures.

According to the same medical journal The Lancet, over a million Indians had died every year due to air pollution in some of the worst polluted cities of the world in India.

The smog over northern India is extracting a heavy toll, every minute two lives are lost in India due to ambient air pollution said the study.

Further, according an estimate by the World Bank, this would amount to a whopping $38 billion loss in income towards labour in India.

Air pollution has also emerged as the deadliest form of pollution and the fourth leading risk factor for premature deaths worldwide, it says.

Recently, 48 leading scientists released the study and they find that Patna and New Delhi the worst polluted cities of the world for PM 2.5 levels or the fine particulate matter that hurts the heart most.

With construction of Cement roads and Metro happening simultaneously in Nagpur, we are sure the number of Nagpurians suffering from respiratory problems and even dying due to it is also on the rise.

We wish these two activities had been planned better so traffic jams and resulting pollution would not be so high for our once ‘greenest city’.