Air pollution is a cause of great concern in our country and is said to affect the life span of Indians greatly. The life span of Indians, has been reduced by average 3.4 years because of the polluted air, says a new study.
A study states that the life expectancy of the people of our country has been decreased on an average by almost 3.4 years and in Delhi the figure is stated to be 6.3 years, because of air pollution. After Delhi, the scientists have cited West Bengal and Bihar in the line with a lowered life expectancy of 6.1 and 5.7 years because of the pollutants in the air.
The study on life expectancy and air pollution has been carried out by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology along with support from the National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Colorado. The title of the study conducted has been termed as “Premature mortality in India due to PM2.5 (fine particulate material) and O3 (Ozone) exposure”.
There has been less significant mortality in J&K and Himachal Pradesh, which show .6 years and 1.2 years respectively.The list of places where the life expectancy maybe reduced also includes “Jharkhand (5.2 years), Uttar Pradesh and Odisha (4.8 years), Haryana and Punjab (4.7 years), Chattisgarh (4.1 years), Assam (4 years),
Tripura (3.9 years), Meghalaya (3.8 years) and Maharashtra (3.3 years).”
The study further indicated “Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan collectively make for 32 per cent of countrywide PM2.5 premature mortalities.”
caused by ozone, has caused almost 18% mortalities in Uttar Pradesh, 11% Bihar, 9.5 % West Bengal, 7% both Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
The study reveals that nearly 570,000 people died due to PM2.5 and 12,000 people died due to ozone exposure in 2011 as confirmed by one of the IITM research scientists in the team, SachinGhude, who claimed “We estimate that PM2.5 exposure leads to about 570,000 premature mortalities in 2011 and on national scale, our estimate of mortality by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (CoPD) due to Ozone 3 exposure is about 12,000 people.”
The pollution levels of the air have gone up because of transportation, energy sectors, urbanization, climatic changes, atmospheric emissions, rapid industrialization, and fuel burning. The situation needs to be controlled both at the individual and Governmental level.
