New Delhi, Nov. 19 (IANS): India is the world's second most polluted country, slightly trailing only Nepal, the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) said on Monday.
Particulate pollution is so severe that it shortens the average Indian's life expectancy by more than four years relative to what it would be if World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines were met.
This is up from about two years in the late 1990s due to a 69 per cent increase in particulate pollution, it said.
Concentrations in Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, and the National Capital Territory of Delhi are substantially higher, and the impact on life expectancy exceeds six years.
Its new air pollution index, known as the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI), finds that air pollution reduces global life expectancy by nearly two years, making it the single greatest threat to human health.
The tool gives figures like -- for an average resident of Delhi, gain in life expectancy if the WHO guidelines are met, could be up to 10.2 years.
Likewise, it gives numbers of years lost to pollution for every district of India for a span of 18 years between 1998 and 2016.
What makes AQLI unique is that it converts pollution into perhaps the most important metric that exists -- life expectancy. It does so at a hyper-local level throughout the world.
Further, it illustrates how air pollution policies can increase life expectancy when they meet the World Health Organization's (WHO) guideline, existing national air quality standards, or user-defined air quality levels.
This information helps informing local communities and policymakers about the importance of air pollution policies in very concrete terms.
Loss of life expectancy is highest in Asia, exceeding six years in many parts of India and China; some residents of the US still lose up to a year of life from pollution.
Fossil fuel-driven particulate air pollution cuts global average life expectancy by 1.8 years per person, according to the pollution index and accompanying report produced by the EPIC.
Seventy-five per cent of the global population, or 5.5 billion people, live in areas where particulate pollution exceeds the WHO guideline.
The AQLI reveals that India and China, which make up 36 per cent of the world's population, account for 73 per cent of all years of life lost due to particulate pollution.
On average, people in India would live 4.3 years longer if their country met the WHO guideline, expanding the average life expectancy at birth there from 69 to 73 years.
Globally, the AQLI reveals that particulate pollution reduces average life expectancy by 1.8 years, making it the greatest global threat to human health.
By comparison, first-hand cigarette smoke leads to a reduction in global average life expectancy of about 1.6 years.
Other risks to human health have even smaller effects: alcohol and drugs reduce life expectancy by 11 months; unsafe water and sanitation take off seven months; and HIV/AIDS four months.
Conflict and terrorism take off 22 days. So, the impact of particulate pollution on life expectancy is comparable to that of smoking, twice that of alcohol and drug use, three times that of unsafe water, five times that of HIV/AIDS, and more than 25 times that of conflict and terrorism.
