Delhi has emerged as the world’s most polluted city in a new study which has also found that its residents are on track of losing 11.9 years of life if the current levels of pollution persist.
Key points
- The Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) released by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago also showed that all of India’s 1.3 billion people live in areas where the annual average particulate pollution level exceeds the 5 g/m3 limit set by World Health Organization (WHO).
- It also found that 67.4 per cent of the country’s population lives in areas that exceed the country’s own national air quality standard of 40 g/m3.
- The study said fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) shortens an average Indian’s life expectancy by 5.3 years, relative to what it would be if the 5 g/m3 pollution limit set by (WHO) was met.
- Even in the least polluted district in the region Pathankot in Punjab particulate pollution is more than seven times the WHO limit, taking 3.1 years off life expectancy if current levels persist.
- Three-quarters of air pollution’s impact on global life expectancy occurs in just six countries — Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, China, Nigeria and Indonesia — where people lose one to more than six years of their lives because of the air they breathe.
