Air pollution ranks as the second leading risk factor for death globally, causing 81 lakh fatalities worldwide in 2021, including 20.87 lakh in India, with children increasingly becoming the victims, according to the State of Global Air (SoGA) report.
The report, produced in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), stated that over 7 lakh children under the age of five died due to air pollution exposure. “A staggering 5 lakh of these child deaths were linked to household air pollution due to cooking indoors with polluting fuels, mostly in Africa and Asia,” the report said.
Taking note of the damning numbers, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh held Prime Minister Narendra Modi responsible for the situation in the country. In an X post this morning, Ramesh said, “When the one-third prime minister tells children that ‘climate has not changed, human beings have changed’; when environment, forest, and biodiversity conservation laws are systematically weakened; when pollution control norms are not strictly enforced; and when large-scale deforestation is promoted, these are the inevitable consequences.”
The report by the Health Effects Institute (HEI), an independent US-based nonprofit organisation, provides a comprehensive analysis of the Global Burden of Disease study 2021. It shows that fine particulate matter (PM 2.5), household air pollution, ozone (O3), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) have severe health impacts globally.
According to the report, PM 2.5 pollution, largely from fossil fuels and biomass combustion, represents the largest contributor to the global burden of air pollution-related diseases, accounting for 78 lakh deaths. Ozone contributed to approximately 4.9 lakh deaths, while NO2, commonly found in urban areas, affected populations in high-income countries.
The mortality rate in India due to air pollution increased from 2,042,000 deaths in 2015 to 2,087,000 in 2021. During the Covid lockdown, deaths decreased by nearly 100,000, which many studies attributed to the reduction in the burning of fossil fuels.
However, the SoGA report cited newly published studies suggesting that exposure to NO2 and PM2.5 was associated with “an increased risk of Covid-19 incidence among people with lower socioeconomic status compared to others.”
Pallavi Pant, HEI’s Head of Global Health, said the report serves as a stark reminder of the impact of air pollution on human health, disproportionately affecting young children, older populations, and low- and middle-income countries.
Environment experts say that several key environmental regulations have been relaxed or undermined in the last few years. For instance, the dilution of the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) norms has made it easier for industrial projects to bypass scrutiny allowing for potentially polluting industries to operate with fewer checks and balances, directly contributing to increased air pollution.
The government’s push for rapid industrialisation and economic growth has come at the expense of environmental health. The weakening of forest conservation laws has led to increased deforestation. Forests act as vital carbon sinks, and their destruction exacerbates air pollution by reducing the natural filtration of air pollutants.
