Air Pollution In India Is Taking Away 7 Years Of Life Expectancy From Us

Dhir Acharya - Nov 05, 2019


Air Pollution In India Is Taking Away 7 Years Of Life Expectancy From Us

We are seeing a lot of photos showing the sky in Delhi filled with smog. However, air pollution is doing more than just a couple of foggy photos.

In India, people don’t often think about pollution, not really seriously at least. But winter has just started and we have already seen a bunch of photos showing the sky in Delhi filled with smog. And the fact that the photos were taken in India’s capital doesn't mean those in other states and regions in the country are safe. In fact, according to studies, pollution is slowly killing all of us.

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Delhi is covered in smog

To see this more clearly, we just have to look at the Air Quality Life Index, or AQLI, which was created by EPIC (the Energy Policy Institute, the University of Chicago). AQLI measures how much impact pollution, as well as our solutions to it, can have on our life span. And we don’t know if you’ll be surprised, but the situation of India does not look good at all.

The AQLI reveals that people who live in the Indo-Gangetic Plain region won’t have an incredibly long life. The reason is that, due to polluting ways, a typical person may live seven years less.

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People's life expectancy is declining

According to the study’s researchers, the reason behind this huge decline in life expectancy in this region is that our atmospheric quality has decreased from 1998 to 2016. In particular, air pollution has gone up by 72 percent, meaning as of 2019, you can say you die seven years sooner. Back in 1998, we expected our life expectancy to reduce by 3.7 years.

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We can now expect to live 7 years less

While the numbers look bad, the situation has actually been improved since two decades ago. The researchers shared that India is facing air pollution throughout its territory. But the particulate pollution levels in the IGP region, including West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh, and Bihar, are especially high.

In 1998, the life expectancy of people that lived outside that region was estimated to reduce by 1.2 years only. Now, that figure has more than doubled to 2.6 years.

But we still have hope. If we take serious action to achieve the goals of NCAP (National Clean Air Programme, reducing air pollution by 25%, we can gain 1.3 or more years.

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