The India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative study on air pollution

On 22nd December , The India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative published a scientific paper on the health and economic impact of air pollution in Lancet Planetary Health, which documents the trends in health loss due to air pollution and its economic impact in every state of India using the latest improved methods and data.

Findings of the study :

• The economic impact of this health loss due to lost productivity was huge, resulting in 1.4 per cent loss of the country’s GDP in 2019, which is equivalent to INR 260,000 crore (US$ 36.8 billion)
• As many as 1.7 million deaths in India — 18 per cent of the total deaths in the country — were attributable to air pollution in 2019.
• High burden of death and disease due to air pollution and its adverse economic impact from loss of output could impede India’s aspiration to be a $5-trillion economy by 2024.
• The economic loss due to air pollution as a percentage of the state GDP was higher in the northern and central India states, with the highest in Uttar Pradesh (2.2% of GDP) and Bihar (2 per cent of GDP).
• Meanwhile, household air pollution is decreasing in India resulting in 64 per cent reduction in the death rate attributable to it from 1990 to 2019, whereas the death rate from outdoor ambient air pollution has increased during this period by 115 per cent.