DNA Edit: The air we breathe

The World Health Organization (WHO) report on the dire levels of air pollution in Indian cities shouldn’t come as a surprise. Every winter, when the degree of air contamination routinely breaches the critical threshold, there is a hue and cry in the media, urging state governments to take drastic steps. It’s especially true in the case of Delhi and Mumbai, but smaller cities somehow escape national attention.

The WHO list is comprehensive as it brings to focus urban centres such as Varanasi, Kanpur, Faridabad, Gaya, Patna, Agra, Muzaffarpur, Srinagar, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Patiala and Jodhpur. With 14 out of 20 most polluted cities in the world being in India — where PM 10 levels have virtually become the norm — it’s worth noting that a 10 μg/m3 increase in airborne particulate matter of 10 microns in size (PM10) reduces life expectancy by 0.64 years. This means large numbers of Indians are staring at premature deaths caused by air pollution. The twin causes of pollution — household and ambient — are particularly evident in Southeast Asia, with India suffering the most.

The WHO report states that the country accounts for 34 per cent or 2.4 million of the seven million premature deaths globally, caused jointly by household and ambient air pollution every year. Compare these figures with another killer, AIDS, which was responsible for 62,000 deaths in 2016 in India, and one realises why air pollution tops the WHO list of fatal causes. It also underscores the huge divide between rich and poor countries. The WHO regional historic data showed that more than 57 per cent of cities in the Americas and more than 61 per cent of cities in Europe had seen a fall in PM10 and PM2.5 particulate matter between 2010 and 2016. The South and Southeast Asia are the regions where many of the world’s poor cities are located.

While the massive explosion in the number of private vehicles can be seen as a sign of India’s march towards prosperity, it also signifies the inadequacy of the public transport system, and the lack of collective awareness on vehicular pollution in metros and in tier II and tier III cities. Moreover, stubble burning in fields and traditional modes of cooking — in wood or coal — are still very much a part of the Indian way of living.

In the case of the latter though, the Centre’s initiative to give access to clean cooking fuels and technologies in homes, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, has borne some results. Let’s remember that death by air will become inescapable because of the havoc it wreaks on internal organs. The WHO’s take on air pollution sums it up succinctly: It’s a major cause for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), responsible for an estimated 24 per cent of all adult deaths from heart disease, 25 per cent from stroke, 43 per cent from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 29 per cent from lung cancer. We don’t need wars for the obliteration of mankind; a silent killer will have a far more devastating effect.