INDIA, January 19, 2018 (National Herald India): A new study has found that high pollution levels contributed to nearly 1.1 million deaths in 2015, or 10.6% of the total number of deaths in India, with “the burden falling disproportionately (75%) on rural areas”. The study raises the alarm that if no action is taken, “population exposures to PM2.5 are likely to increase by more than 40% by 2050.” Coming close on the heels of the alarm being raised around high pollution levels in Delhi, the study insists, “The urban areas had slightly lower contributions to attributable mortality from residential biomass combustion, open burning, and distributed diesel, and somewhat larger contributions from coal combustion and dust.”
Noting that the Indo-Gangetic plains were found to be particularly more polluted compared to the rest of India, the study, providing a further breakup, says, India experienced a 48% rise in pollution-related deaths compared to 1990, adding, of the 1.09 million deaths in India in 2015, as many as 644,000 were men and 447,000 women. The study says, “Residential biomass burning is the largest individual contributor to the burden of disease in India”, with “residential biomass burning responsible for 267,700 deaths”, or 25% of the total, the study says, “These burden estimates do not include the considerable additional burden from indoor exposure to biomass burning.” The study — “Burden of Disease Attributable to Major Air Pollution Sources in India”, was published by the Health Effects Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, US, and carried out by scholars of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and the University of Washington.