Air Pollution Now Biggest Health Risk in India : Daily Current Affairs

Air Pollution Now Biggest Health Risk in India

Long-term exposure to outdoor and household 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.

According to the State of Global Air 2020 by the U.S.-based Health Effects Institute overall, air pollution was now the largest risk factor for death among all health risks.
Outdoor and household particulate matter pollution also contributed to the deaths of more than 1,16,000 Indian infants in their first month of life last year.
More than half of these deaths were associated with outdoor PM2.5 and others were linked to use of solid fuels such as charcoal, wood, and animal dung for cooking.
India faced the highest per capita pollution exposure — or 83.2 μg/cubic metre — in the world, followed by Nepal at 83.1 μg/cubic metre and Niger at 80.1.

The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act was passed in 1981 to regulate air pollution but has failed to reduce pollution because of poor enforcement of the rules.
NATIONAL AIR QUALITY INDEX (NAQI) was launched in 2014 with outline tag ‘One Number – One Color -One Description’ for the people to judge the air quality within their residing vicinity..
It has been launched for monitoring the air quality in major urban centers across the country on a real-time basis and enhancing public awareness for taking precautionary measure.
The measurement of air quality is based on eight pollutants, namely,
Particulate Matter (PM10), Particulate Matter (PM2.5), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Ozone (O3), Ammonia (NH3), and Lead (Pb).
AQI has six categories of air quality. These are: Good, Satisfactory, Moderately Polluted, Poor, Very Poor and Severe.(please refer the chart below)

AQI	Remark	Possible Health Impacts
0-50	Good	Minimal impact
51-100	Satisfactory	Minor breathing discomfort to sensitive people
101-200	Moderate	Breathing discomfort to the people with lungs, asthma and heart diseases
201-300	Poor	Breathing discomfort to most people on prolonged exposure
301-400	Very Poor	Respiratory illness on prolonged exposure
401-500	Severe	Affects healthy people and seriously impacts those with existing diseases

This newest evidence suggests an especially high risk for infants born in South Asia and sub- Saharan Africa.
Although there has been slow and steady reduction in household reliance on poor-quality fuels, the air pollution from these fuels continues to be a key factor in the deaths of these youngest infants.
The government has claimed that average pollution levels in India are declining over the past three years but these have been marginal.