NEW DELHI: Air pollution killed 1.7 million Indians, accounting for nearly 18% of total deaths in 2019, and resulted in an economic loss of Rs 2.6 lakh crore, nearly 1.4% of GDP, a comprehensive report of the disease burden attributable to air pollution and its economic impact has revealed.
The India State-level Disease Burden Initiative (ISLDBI) published in The Lancet also showed that while the mortality from indoor air pollution reduced by 64% between 1990 and 2019, deaths from outdoor ambient air pollution increased by 115% during this period.
The ISLDBI was launched in 2015 as a collaborative effort between the ICMR, Public Health Foundation of India, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, and a number of other stakeholders in India, including academic experts and institutions, government agencies, and other organizations, under the aegis of the Union ministry of health and family welfare.
Over 300 leading scientists and experts representing about 100 institutions across India are engaged with this collaborative work.
The report also says that the economic loss due to air pollution as a percentage of the state GDP was higher in the northern and central Indian states, with the highest in Uttar Pradesh (2.2%) and Bihar (2%).
The findings also showed that while 40% of the disease burden due to air pollution is from lung diseases, the remaining 60% is from ischemic heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and neonatal deaths related to preterm birth, highlighting the broad-ranging impact of air pollution on human health.
“Air pollution and its impact is not a matter for the health sector alone, and the solutions lie in a multi-sectoral approach with a common commitment to reducing exposure to toxic air, which is impacting the health and productivity of Indians,” said V K Paul, member (health), Niti Aayog on the release of the paper.
According to the paper, the annual average population-weighted mean PM2·5 concentration (as a measure of ambient particulate matter exposure) was 91·7 microgram per cubic meter in India in 2019. Across the states, exposure to ambient particulate matter ranged from 15·8 in Kerala, to 217·6 in Delhi—a 13·8 times difference.
The report also noted that the total health expenditure in India is 3·8% of GDP, while the economic loss due to lost output from premature deaths and morbidity attributable to air pollution estimated in this study was 1·36% of GDP, indicating that the total economic impact of air pollution is high.
“The loss of output in monetary terms attributable to air pollution at the state level is associated with the number and the age-distribution of deaths and morbidity in each state and state GDP per worker,” said the paper.
The economic loss due to air pollution as a percentage of state GDP was highest in northern states of India because people in these states are exposed to very high concentrations of ambient PM2·5 and a high proportion of their population uses solid fuels, it added.