Report: Short-Term Air Pollution Kills 33,000 Indians Annually

India currently has clean air standards far beyond the World Health Organization's recommended level of 15 micrograms per cubic meter of air. The paper argues that to safeguard its inhabitants from the hazards of contaminated air, India needs to significantly lower its clean air standards to at least comply with WHO recommendations.

The study discovered that even air pollution levels below present air quality regulations in India raise the nation's daily death rates.

Over 33,000 deaths annually in ten cities in the country—Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Shimla, and Varanasi—can be linked to air pollution levels beyond WHO recommendations.

"A significant number of deaths were observed even in cities not considered to have high air pollution, such as Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Chennai," according to the report. "India's national air quality standards should be made more stringent, and efforts to control air pollution redoubled," reports also added this.

During the study period, Delhi had the greatest rate of air pollution-related mortality (11.5 percent, or 12,000 deaths annually). "The deaths were attributable to short-term PM.5 exposure higher than the WHO guideline value," the research demonstrated.

During the period, Varanasi recorded the second greatest number of deaths (10.2%, or about 830 deaths annually), which were linked to short-term PM2.5 exposure that exceeded the WHO guideline value. The study found that there was a 1.17% increase in daily fatalities for every 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air rise in short-term PM exposure.

Shimla had the lowest recorded air pollution levels. Air pollution was still a concern in the hill city, though, since 3.7% of all fatalities, or 59 per year, were linked to brief exposure to PM2.5 levels over WHO guidelines. "The results from Shimla add credence to global evidence that there is no safe level of air pollution exposure," the research stated.