India accounted for about 28 per cent of an estimated 9 million pollution-linked deaths worldwide in 2015, the study found. It also topped the list of deaths linked to polluted air (1.81 million) and water (0.64 million).
India has had most number of pollution-related deaths in the world in 2015, even more than the sub-Saharan countries, reveals the latest report published in the medical journal The Lancet.
According to the report, 2.51 million premature deaths were reported in the country due to diseases linked to air, water and other forms of pollution.
India accounted for about 28 per cent of an estimated 9 million pollution-linked deaths worldwide in 2015, the study found. It also topped the list of deaths linked to polluted air (1.81 million) and water (0.64 million).
China, with 1.8 million pollution-linked deaths in 2015, followed India on The Lancet list. Most of these deaths were due to non-communicable diseases caused by pollution, such as heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health's study.
The pollution risk factors examined by the Commission were air pollution: household air pollution, and ambient fine particulate pollution. The Commission also examined risk factors of water pollution: unsafe sanitation and unsafe water resources, and heavy metal pollution for examining soil pollution.
The study is part of a two-year project that involved more than 40 international health and environmental authors led by Philip Landrigan, an environmental scientist, and Richard Fuller, founder of NGO Pure Earth, and the secretariat of the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution. Among the authors of the study are former environment minister Jairam Ramesh and IIT-Delhi's Prof Mukesh Khare.
According to The Lancet report, air pollution was the biggest contributor, linked to 6.5 million deaths in 2015, ahead of water pollution (1.8 million) and workplace-related pollution (0.8 million).
Of the 2.51 million deaths in India, 1.81 were related to air pollution, 0.64 million to water pollution, 0.17 million to occupational exposure and 95,000 linked to pollution, according to the study.
Speaking to DNA about the report, Bhargava Krishna, Manager Centre for Environmental Health, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), said, "These numbers are not new, the point that this report is trying to make is from the angle that the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has not been able to make, linking it to deaths. If you ses the kind of polluting elements that people are exposed to, on a daily basis, it is not surprising that India tops the list."
"But the absolute number takes away from the proportion of deaths per hundred thousand which is also quite high. If you see this number, India is just slightly lower than sub-Saharan countries, some of which are even troubled zones and do not have the infrastructure. This is a reason to worry because compared to them, India should be doing much better with the kind of infrastructure that we have," he added.
The Lancet study concluded that pollution is now the largest environmental cause of disease and death in the world today — three times more those from HIV-AIDS, TB and malaria put together.
For the study, researchers used data from the Global Burden of Disease study. The data on WHO 2012 analysis of the global burden of diseases caused by living and working in unhealthy environment has also been used to collate the study.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Delhi-Pollution")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}