PM2.5 exposure leads to 1.5mn deaths per yr in India

Long-term exposure to PM2.5 pollution concentrations higher than the World Health Organisation's (WHO) annual average guideline of 5 µg/m³ is potentially associated with 1.5 million deaths annually in India, according to a study published in The Lancet Planetary Health on Wednesday.

- Rhythma Kaul

NEW DELHI:

PM2.5, or fine particulate matter, refers to air particles with a diameter of 2.5 microns or less.

The study highlighted that India's entire population of 1.4 billion lives in areas where PM2.5 levels exceed WHO recommendations, with 81.9% (1.1 billion people) residing in regions where concentrations surpass the national air quality standard of 40 µg/m³.

The study supporting the association between long-term exposure to outdoor air pollution and deaths in India, however, is inconsistent with studies in other countries, the authors said.

The study looked at annual deaths from 2009 to 2019 at the district level in India and obtained annual PM2.5 concentrations by a machine learning-based model using satellite data as well as ground-monitoring observations of air pollution levels across 1,056 locations.