NEW DELHI: That pollution is a silent killer is a well-established fact. But it still comes as a bit of a shocker to know that the toxic effects of outdoor and household particulate matter snuffed out the lives of more than 1,16,000 infants in India in their first month in 2019.
This came to light in a new comprehensive study, State of Global Air 2020 (SoGA), analysing air pollution’s global impact on newborns. Long-term exposure to outdoor and indoor air pollution contributed to over 1.67 million annual deaths from stroke, heart attack, diabetes, lung cancer, chronic lung diseases and neonatal diseases, in India in 2019.
For the youngest infants, most deaths were related to complications from low birth weight and preterm birth. South Asian countries including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal feature among the top ten countries with the highest PM2.5 exposures last year; all these countries experienced increase in outdoor PM2.5 levels between 2010 and 2019.
Over half of the infant deaths in India were linked with outdoor PM2.5 and others to use of solid fuels such as charcoal, wood for cooking. “Although there has been slow and steady reduction in household reliance on poorquality fuels, the air pollution from these fuels continues to be a key factor in the deaths of these youngest infants,” said Daniel S.
Greenbaum, president of Health Effects Institute, a not-forprofit organisation. Use of solid fuels for cooking presents a pattern of moderate success in India. Since 2010, over 50 million fewer people have been exposed to household air pollution with the PM Ujjwala Yojana and other schemes helping to expand access to clean energy.