Context

Some 1.7 million Indians died due to air pollution in 2019, according to a report by interdisciplinary journal Lancet Planetary Health.

About

What is the report all about?

• The report ‘The India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative’estimates health and economic impacts of air pollution, both from indoor and outdoor sources.
• The findings in the paper highlight that the disease burden due to household air pollution is reducing in India but the same has increased due to ambient outdoor air pollution.
• The report released December 21, 2020.

Key-findings of the Report

• The toll in India was 18 per cent of the total deaths in the country.
• The report has both good and bad news for India:
  • Indoor, or household, air pollution caused 64 percent fewer deaths in the last two decades (1990-2019).
  • Outdoor air pollution, or ambient air pollution, is not only increasing but also killing more. The death rate from outdoor ambient air pollution has increased during this period by 115 percent.

What about economic losses?

• Premature deaths and morbidity: India has lost 1.4 percent of GDP due to premature deaths and morbidity from air pollution.
  • It is equivalent to Rs 2,60,000 crore in monetary term, more than four times of the allocation for healthcare in the Union budget for 2020-21.
  • The economic loss due to lost output from premature deaths and morbidity attributable to ambient particulate matter pollution ranged from $9.5 million in the small northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh to $3188.4 million in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
• Lung disease:  Of the total economic loss of $36·8 billion, lung diseases caused by air pollution accounted for the highest share- 36.6 percent.
  • 36·6% was from lung diseases, which included chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (21·1%), lower respiratory infections (14·2%), and lung cancer (1·2%).
  • The rest was from ischaemic heart disease (24·9%), stroke (14·1%), diabetes (8·4%), neonatal disorders (13·3%), and cataract (2·7%).
    
    
• Loss in major states: The economic loss due to air pollution as a percentage of the state GDP was higher in the northern and central India states, with the highest in Uttar Pradesh (2.2 percent of GDP) and Bihar (2 percent of GDP).
  • Delhi had the highest per-capita economic loss due to air pollution, followed by Haryana in 2019.
• Indoor air pollution: In term of economic losses attributable to indoor air pollution ranged, Goa had the least loss at $7.6 million and UP the highest at $1829·6 million.