Centre denies conclusive direct correlation between air pollution and deaths 

“There is no conclusive data available to establish a direct correlation of deaths due to air pollution. Air pollution is one of the many factors affecting pulmonary ailments and associated diseases,” Kirti Vardhan Singh, Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

Singh’s written statement came in reply to an unstarred question by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP M Thambidurai.

The MoS added, “Health is affected by (the) cumulative impact of a number of factors apart from the environment, which include food habits, occupational habits, socio-economic status, medical history, immunity, heredity, etc. of the individuals.”

The AIADMK MP had asked whether a large number of deaths occurred due to severe air pollution, especially in North India, and, if so, the number of deaths during the last five years.

Last month, Punya Salila Srivastava, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, wrote a letter to the state health departments to enhance preparedness to tackle air pollution.

The advisory also cited an October letter from the Director General of Health Services, which said that “air pollution was a significant contributor to acute health conditions, exacerbates chronic diseases affecting respiratory and cardiovascular systems.” It also pointed out that these chronic illnesses, attributed to prolonged exposure to air pollution, often lead to an increase in premature mortality.

The health secretary’s November letter also enclosed a detailed health advisory on air pollution under the National Programme on Climate Change and Human Health. The advisory quoted the 2021 ICMR study, which said that 1.7 million deaths in India in 2019 were attributable to air pollution. Of this, the largest proportions were due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (32.5 per cent), ischemic heart disease (29.2 per cent), stroke (16.2 per cent) and lower respiratory infections (11.2 per cent).

Further, this July, a first-of-its-kind multi-city study in India published in Lancet revealed that about 11.5 per cent of deaths in Delhi every year, roughly 12,000 deaths, can be attributed to air pollution.

The study covered analysis of data in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Shimla and Varanasi. It said that 33,000 deaths could be attributed to air pollution every year on average. The researchers – from India and abroad – had obtained daily death data from civil registries in the 10 cities between 2008 and 2019.