According to the findings, Kolkata has the third highest number of short-term deaths related to air pollution among the ten cities surveyed by the researchers.
The highest figure in this count is Delhi with 11.5 percent, followed by Varanasi with 10.2 percent of all deaths.
The results of the study conducted by researchers from India's leading institutes were published in Lancet Planetary Health.
The study, based on research conducted in ten large Indian cities, revealed that 7.3 percent of the total deaths in Kolkata, amounting to 4,700 a year, are due to short-term emissions of PM 2.5. .
According to the findings, a copy of which is available with IANS, the short-term air pollution exposure of people in Kolkata is higher than the World Health Organization (WHO) values in this regard.
The figure is also slightly higher than the average of 7.2 percent of the cities covered by the study, which is equivalent to 33,000 deaths a year in the ten cities surveyed.
Among the ten cities included in the survey, Shimla had the lowest air pollution levels.
“However, air pollution remained a risk here, with 3.7 percent of all deaths (59 per year) attributable to short-term exposure to PM2.5 above the WHO guideline value. The Shimla results add credibility to the global evidence that there is no safe level of exposure to air pollution,” the report reads.
According to Dr. Poornima Prabhakaran, director of the Center for Health Analytics Research and Trends (CHART), Trivedi School of Biosciences, Ashoka University and leader of the CHAIR-India consortium in India, this unique study represented a diverse profile of quality of air in ten cities and demonstrates for the first time that the risk of mortality is significant even at lower levels of air pollution.
“The insights point to an urgent need to review our air quality management strategies that currently focus solely on 'non-compliant cities', rethink current air quality standards that take into account lower risk thresholds and move from addressing regional to local sources to effectively protect human health. " she added.
The highest figure in this count is Delhi with 11.5 percent, followed by Varanasi with 10.2 percent of all deaths.
The results of the study conducted by researchers from India's leading institutes were published in Lancet Planetary Health.
The study, based on research conducted in ten large Indian cities, revealed that 7.3 percent of the total deaths in Kolkata, amounting to 4,700 a year, are due to short-term emissions of PM 2.5. .
According to the findings, a copy of which is available with IANS, the short-term air pollution exposure of people in Kolkata is higher than the World Health Organization (WHO) values in this regard.
The figure is also slightly higher than the average of 7.2 percent of the cities covered by the study, which is equivalent to 33,000 deaths a year in the ten cities surveyed.
Among the ten cities included in the survey, Shimla had the lowest air pollution levels.
“However, air pollution remained a risk here, with 3.7 percent of all deaths (59 per year) attributable to short-term exposure to PM2.5 above the WHO guideline value. The Shimla results add credibility to the global evidence that there is no safe level of exposure to air pollution,” the report reads.
According to Dr. Poornima Prabhakaran, director of the Center for Health Analytics Research and Trends (CHART), Trivedi School of Biosciences, Ashoka University and leader of the CHAIR-India consortium in India, this unique study represented a diverse profile of quality of air in ten cities and demonstrates for the first time that the risk of mortality is significant even at lower levels of air pollution.
“The insights point to an urgent need to review our air quality management strategies that currently focus solely on 'non-compliant cities', rethink current air quality standards that take into account lower risk thresholds and move from addressing regional to local sources to effectively protect human health. " she added.
