NEW DELHI: India’s toxic air claimed 1.24 million lives in 2017, or 12.5 percent of total deaths recorded that year, according to a study published in Lancet Planetary Health on Thursday.
More than 51 percent of the people who died because of air pollution were younger than 70, said the study conducted by academics and scientists from various institutions in India and around the world.
It was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Indian government and the Indian Council of Medical Research.
Of the total, about 670,000 died from air pollution in the wider environment and 480,000 from household pollution related to the use of solid cooking fuels.
The Indian capital, New Delhi, was most exposed to the tiny particulate matter, known as PM 2.5, that can reach deep into the lungs and cause major health problems, the study concluded. Some northern states closer to Delhi were almost as bad.
Average life expectancy in India in 2017 would have been higher by 1.7 years if air quality was at healthy levels, the report said.
That isn’t as gloomy as some other recent studies. For example the University of Chicago’s report released last month said prolonged exposure to pollution reduces the life expectancy of an Indian citizen by over 4 years.
Still, the new study shows India has a higher proportion of global health loss due to air pollution — at 26.2 percent of the world’s total when measured in deaths and disability — than its 18.1 percent share of the world’s population.
“The findings of this study suggest that the impact of air pollution on deaths and life expectancy in India might be lower than previously estimated but this impact is still quite substantial,” the study said.
Delhi’s air was “very poor” on Thursday, according to a federal pollution agency. The city’s quality of air has swung between “severe” to “hazardous” levels multiple times in the past two months.
The city residents’ apparent lack of concern about the toxic air — whether through ignorance, apathy or the impact of poverty — gives federal and local politicians the cover they need for failing to vigorously address the problem, pollution activists, social scientists and political experts have said.
Earlier this year, the World Health Organization said India was home to the world’s 14 most polluted cities.
India’s polluted air claimed 1.24 million lives in 2017
India’s polluted air claimed 1.24 million lives in 2017
- The Indian capital, New Delhi, was most exposed to the tiny particulate matter, known as PM 2.5, that can reach deep into the lungs and cause major health problems
- Average life expectancy in India in 2017 would have been higher by 1.7 years if air quality was at healthy levels, the report said
Tajikistan denounces ‘ethnic hatred’ stabbing of schoolboy in Russia
- Authorities in Dushanbe confirmed the victim was Tajik and summoned the Russian ambassador to protest the attack
- The foreign ministry said the attack was “motivated by ethnic hatred“
DUSHANBE, Tajikistan: Tajikistan on Wednesday denounced an “ethnic hatred” attack in Russia, in a rare criticism of its ally a day after a 10-year-old Tajik schoolboy was killed by an older pupil near Moscow.
Russia’s main investigative body, the Investigative Committee, said the 15-year-old suspect was detained and in custody after the attack in Gorki-2, a village west of Moscow in the Odintsovo district.
Authorities in Dushanbe confirmed the victim was Tajik and summoned the Russian ambassador to protest the attack.
The foreign ministry said the attack was “motivated by ethnic hatred.”
The ambassador was handed a note “demanding that Russia conduct an immediate, objective, and impartial investigation into this tragic incident,” the ministry said in a statement.
In a separate statement, the Tajik interior ministry also said it feared the incident would “serve as a pretext for incitement and provocation by certain radical nationalist groups to commit similar crimes.”
The Russian foreign ministry expressed “its deepest condolences to the Tajik side, the families of the deceased, and the victims of the attack,” its spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted as saying on the ministry’s website.
“The Russian side will do everything necessary to ensure an impartial and objective investigation of the incident,” she added.
According to Russian media, including newspapers Komsomolskaya Pravda and Kommersant, the alleged attacker subscribed to neo-Nazi channels and had sent his classmates a racist manifesto a few days before the incident.
Hundreds of thousands of Tajiks work in Russia, many of them holding Russian citizenship.
According to the World Bank, remittances to their relatives back in Tajikistan account for nearly half the GDP of the Central Asian country.
Since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, some Central Asian migrants have looked for work in other countries instead of Russia.
Moscow has tried to recruit Central Asian migrants into the Russian army to fight in Ukraine.
Russia has also hardened its migration policies since a 2024 attack on a concert hall that killed 149 people, with Moscow arresting Tajik citizens over the attack.
