At least one in eight people died of pollution-related causes in India in 2017, a group of Indian medical research bodies have said in a recent report. The research was undertaken as part of a joint project of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The research, entitled "The impact of air pollution on deaths, disease burden and life expectancy across the states of India: The Global Burden of Disease Study 2017," corroborates the fact that air pollution has reached disastrous levels in the country.

The northern states, including Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, are affected worse than regions in the south.

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Experts calibrated nearly 369 ground-level monitoring stations and satellite-based aerosol optical depth data to measure outdoor air pollution. The findings of the research, which was also published in the journal Lancet Planetary Health, said 1.2 million people died due to contaminated air in 2017, accounting for 12.5 percent of total deaths in the country. Half of the victims were below 70 years of age.

Without the harmful effects of air pollution, average life expectancy would have increased by at least 1.7 years, the experts argued. In the case of non-communicable diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, ischemic heart disease, stroke, diabetes, lung cancer, diabetes and cataract, the number of years lost to ill health was almost as much as the rate attributable to tobacco use, the study said.

The startling results have alarmed both environmentalists and experts, who feel that this evidence should spur leaders to act urgently and reduce health risks to all, particularly children, the elderly and the poor.

Watch video 03:16 Share The high cost of India's appetite for coal Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/38EgD The high cost of India's appetite for coal

Anumita Roychowdhury of the Centre for Science and Environment said that steps needed to be taken urgently to fix the issue. "The scale of the problem is critical and we need to move on a war footing, otherwise we will lose more people in the coming years," she told DW.

Sources of air pollution

While air pollution is a major planetary health risk and many developing countries are suffering from its effects, India's pollution levels have been consistently terrible for the last few years.

According to the researchers, the main reasons for air pollution were coal burning for thermal power production, industry emissions, construction, brick kilns, transport vehicles, residential and commercial biomass burning, agricultural stubble burning and the use of diesel generators.

In addition to the above reasons, winter months bring more problems with them, especially in the capital New Delhi, where a drop in temperatures and wind speeds results in more pollutants being trapped in the atmosphere, causing a haze. Farmers in agrarian areas around Delhi burn more than 23 million tons of crop stubble every year, further contributing to the dense winter smog.

Siddharth Singh, energy expert and author of "The Great Smog of India," says that during this period, breathing in the city air is like smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. "The crisis is so grave that it warrants emergency health advisories forbidding people from stepping out. And yet, for most of us, life is business as usual. It kills people silently," he noted.

Delhi shrouded in smog after Diwali Invisible India Air quality had already deteriorated sharply ahead of the main celebration – as this picture of a cluster of temples in the Indian capital shows from a couple of days earlier. As winter approaches, air quality tends to worsen for various reasons, including the burning of crop residues outside the city and increased diesel emissions.

Delhi shrouded in smog after Diwali Addition to tradition Diwali is traditionally celebrated by the lighting of lamps, but firecrackers have since become an integral part of the tradition. They’re also used in wedding ceremonies. Explosions often occur in the illegal backyard and underground workshops that make firecrackers for the event. An explosion at a licensed factory in the state of Uttar Pradesh last month killed seven people.

Delhi shrouded in smog after Diwali Rules go unheeded Here, one of Delhi's most popular landmarks, the Red Fort, appears in a haze on the day after the main Diwali celebrations. In October, India’s Supreme Court ruled that the use of Diwali fireworks should only take place within a narrow time window and that only "green" fireworks — which give off less soot and smoke — should be used. However, authorities appeared reluctant to enforce the rules.

Delhi shrouded in smog after Diwali Light over darkness The five-day festival of lights is principally seen as a Hindu celebration, symbolizing "the victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance." In the northern hemisphere, it falls between mid-November and coincides with the new moon, with the main day of celebration being the third day. Diwali is also a time of celebration for Sikhs, Jains, and some Buddhists.

Delhi shrouded in smog after Diwali A family stroll Some, like this family on the morning after Diwali, choose to wear masks to protect themselves. But the practice is nowhere near as popular in Delhi as it is in other cities affected by smog, such as Beijing. Children are particularly vulnerable. Last month the World Health Organization said exposure to toxic air indoors and out kills some 600,000 children under the age of 15 each year. Author: Richard Connor



A 'road map' to curb pollution

Both the federal and local governments have done little despite warning signals for several years that Indian cities were exposed to alarming pollution levels that breached the safe limit set by the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS).

In many cases, pollution levels were four times the maximum permissible limit recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). No Indian state achieves pollution levels at or below the WHO's limits, the study revealed.

"These findings will serve as a useful guide for making further progress in reducing the adverse impact of air pollution in the country," Balram Bhargava, director of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) told DW, adding that India needed to act quickly.

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New Delhi is still struggling to create a coordinated and well-thought-out national approach to reduce pollution. Several metropolitan cities have initiated some pollution control action in recent years, but there has been little or no political will to enforce anti-pollution laws.

Experts feel that NAAQS must be legally binding in all regions and that the national air quality planning and city action plans need a roadmap for chalking out measures to curb pollution. At the very least, officials should launch a public information system which informs people of the quality of air on a daily basis. Furthermore, health advisories and smog alerts need to be sent out so people can be prepared in case of pollution emergencies.

According to Lalit Dandona, a scientist at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), "This [pollution] is going to have a massive impact on public health. The government's policies on pollution will have to be put to the test and it is in everyone's interest that we have good and clean air."