ADVERTISEMENT

Scale of India’s Air Pollution Crisis Revealed in New Data

13 percent of India’s deaths could be attributed to bad air, data shows.

Scale of India’s Air Pollution Crisis Revealed in New Data
Vehicles travel along a road shrouded in smog in Delhi, India. (Photographer: Ruhani Kaur/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Roughly 1.24 million people died in 2017 from India’s air pollution, according to The Lancet. The research released Thursday found 13 percent of India’s deaths -- one out of every eight -- could be attributed to bad air, underscoring the scale of the South Asian nation’s battle with the world’s deadliest air.

Key Insights

  • More people died from smog than from household smoke generated by cooking fires. That’s important because Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has distributed millions of liquefied petroleum gas canisters to stop people burning dung cakes and wood inside their homes. Despite that, researchers found more than half of Indians remained exposed to indoor smoke from cooking fires. In poor states like Bihar and Jharkhand, the percentage of people using fires was above 75 percent.
  • The smog was concentrated in northern India and was the worst in the country’s infamously smoggy capital, New Delhi. However, researchers found 77 percent of India’s 1.4 billion people were exposed to air far dirtier than recommended limits. The poor are the worst hit by pollution, according to The Lancet.
  • India’s life expectancy would increase by 1.7 years nationally and by two years in north Indian states, such as Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, if air quality was at a healthier level.
  • The Lancet’s data could put more pressure on Indian politicians to act. The environment ministry in New Delhi has criticized international studies, saying they use “extrapolation” that is “probably not realistic.” But this research was funded, in part, by India’s own health ministry.
  • Indian states need to have a multifaceted approach that targets “power production, industry, transport, fuel use, urban planning, construction, and agriculture,” according to the research

Get More

  • India is the world’s fastest growing major economy. It also has the world’s worst air.
  • To read a story about steps being taken to combat smog in India’s capital, click here.

To contact the reporter on this story: Iain Marlow in New Delhi at imarlow1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ruth Pollard at rpollard2@bloomberg.net, Chris Kay, Arijit Ghosh

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.