Dismissing all studies claiming that a percentage of deaths in India can be attributed to pollution, Union minister Prakash Javadekar on Friday said no Indian study has shown that pollution shortens life.
Speaking in Lok Sabha in response to a query during the Question Hour, Javadekar said, “Let us not create a fear psychosis among people.”
The Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change said the government has been taking pro-active actions to curb pollution and that the efforts are bearing fruits.
Indian studies have not shown a correlation between shortening of life and pollution, he added.
According to a report published earlier this year, over 1.2 million people died in India due to air pollution in 2017. Overall long-term exposure to outdoor and indoor air pollution contributed to nearly 5 million deaths from stroke, diabetes, heart attack, lung cancer, and chronic lung disease in 2017, according to the State of Global Air 2019, released by US-based organisation Health Effects Institute (HEI).
“Out of these, 3 million deaths are directly attributed to PM2.5, half of which is from India and China together. The analysis found that China and India together were responsible for over half of the total global attributable deaths, with each country facing over 1.2 million deaths from all air pollution in 2017,” the report said.
The report said that air pollution is the third highest cause of death among all health risks in India, ranking just above smoking.
A similar study published in 2018 said one in eight deaths in India in 2017 (total 12.4 lakh deaths) was attributable to air pollution. The study, published in The Lancet Planetary Health journal, termed air pollution a leading risk factor for deaths in the country where the average life expectancy would have been 1.7 years higher if the pollution levels were less than the minimal level causing health loss.
Referring to these reports, Javadekar said such studies might not be based on first generation data.
The minister said the Central government has launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) to tackle air pollution problem across the country.
“Under NCAP, 102 non-attainment cities have been identified based on ambient air quality data for the period 2011-2015 and WHO (World Health Organisation) report 2014/18,” he said.
City-specific action plans have been prepared and approved for implementation in all the 102 cities, he added.
Source: dnaindia.com