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More than one lakh infants die due to air pollution in India
What is the state of Global Air?
- The State of Global Air report and interactive website brings into one place a comprehensive analysis of the levels and trends in air quality and health for every country in the world.
- They are produced annually by
- the Health Effects Institute(an independent, nonprofit research institute funded jointly by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) and
- the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’s (IHME’s) Global Burden of Disease (GBD) project
Key findings of the report
- It is the first-ever comprehensive analysis of air pollution’s global impact on newborns
- The report has found that high particulate matter contributed to the deaths of more than 116,000 Indian infants who did not survive their first month
- As per the report, more than half of infant deaths were associated with outdoor PM2.5 and others were linked to the use of solid fuels such as charcoal, wood, and animal dung for cooking.
- The report goes on to mention that 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.
- As per the report, most deaths of the infants were related to complications from low birth weight and preterm birth.
- Overall, air pollution is now the biggest risk factor for death among others
