2024-07-04 01:48:52
Fine particulate air pollution is responsible for about 7% of deaths in ten major Indian cities, according to a study published on Thursday, highlighting that mortality remains high even among lightly polluted cities.
“Our findings, based on current data from 2008 to 2019 in major Indian cities, show that around 7% of deaths (are) attributable to daily exposure to PM2.5 particles, generally referred to as fine particles , briefly Jeroen de Bont. , one of the lead authors of the study published in the Lancet Planetary Health, in a press release.
The researchers looked at ten major Indian cities: Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Banaras, Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, Hyderabad, Madras, Pune and Shimla.
They examined the relationship between the number of deaths and the number of fine particles observed in each of these cities, using modeling that makes it possible to distinguish between different sources of air pollution such as transport or waste burning.
AFP
As a pollution threshold, they use the definition of the World Health Organization (WHO) for which it is not necessary to exceed 15 micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic meter.
In total, they estimate that 7.2% of deaths over the period studied, or about 33,000, were related to exposure to fine particles.
The matter is crucial in India, one of the countries most exposed to pollution from these particles that promote a series of pathologies from stroke to lung cancer.
In particular, it appears that deaths related to these particles are already high in the least polluted cities on the list, such as Bombay and Calcutta.
However, if the Indian authorities set objectives to improve air quality, they set a threshold much higher than that of the WHO: 60 micrograms per cubic meter.
“By lowering and enforcing these thresholds, we could save thousands of lives per year,” estimates Joel Schwartz, another author of the study.
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