Lancet had estimated that air pollution was responsible for 2.3 million premature deaths in India in 2019
Throwing to the winds multiple peer-reviewed publications in reputed medical journals, the government of India Tuesday told the Rajya Sabha that there is no conclusive data in the country on deaths due to air pollution.
Replying to a question by Trinamool Congress MP Jawhar Sircar, minister of state for health and family welfare Anupriya Patel said: “There are no conclusive data available in the country to establish direct correlation of death/disease exclusively due to air pollution. Air pollution is one of the triggering factors for respiratory ailments and associated diseases. Health effects of air pollution are synergistic manifestation of factors which include food habits, occupational habits, socioeconomic status, medical history, immunity, heredity etc. of the individuals.”
Earlier this month the medical journal The Lancet Planetary Health estimated that air pollution kills more than 33000 people every year in ten Indian cities, with Delhi alone accounting for a third of those deaths. The study, by the Karolinska Institute analysed the association between PM2·5 exposure and approximately 3·6 million daily deaths in ten Indian cities between 2008 and 2019. It came to the conclusion that every year air pollution kills 2495 people I. ahmedabad, 2102 in Bangalore, 2870 in Chennai, 11964 in Delhi, 1597 in Hyderabad, 4678 in Kolkata, 5091 in Mumbai, 1367 in Pune, 59 in Shimla and 831 in Varanasi. The total death toll in these ten cities because of air pollution comes to 33627.
Patel in her reply listed out the various initiatives taken by the government of India to minimise exposure to air pollution. The ministry of health, she said, has launched National Program on Climate Change and Human Health (NPCCHH) atn the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), with the objective to create awareness, capacity building, health sector preparedness and response and partnerships related activities on the climate sensitive health issues in the country since 2019.
“The Programme has expanded in all the State/UTs and activities are conducted in the form of training on Climate Sensitive Diseases, Surveillance on Acute Respiratory Illnesses and Heat related Illnesses, generation & dissemination of Information, Education and Communication (IEC) on Air Pollution & Heat and its health impacts on health which include children. Further, guidelines on ‘Air Pollution and its Impact on Children’s Health’ have been developed in both Hindi and English under National Programme on Climate Change and Human Health in 2020 and shared with States for implementation,” she said.
