India should take urgent action to tackle air pollution: WHO - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

India should take urgent action to tackle air pollution: WHO.

India should take “urgent action” to tackle air pollution as the levels of toxic air in many cities of the country are much higher than the recommended guidelines, which could have a major impact on people's health, WHO director Maria Neira said.

Several studies conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO), Centre for Science and Environment and others published in journals such as The Lancet have linked pollution with premature deaths in India.
Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar recently told Parliament that there was no Indian study to show any correlation between pollution and shortening of lifespan.

"The studies conducted in India have not shown a direct correlation of shortening of life because of pollution. Let us not create a fear psychosis among people," the minister told the House.
When asked to comment on the minister's speech in the Lok Sabha, Neira told PTI "a very strong scientific evidence is telling us that exposure to air pollution is having a major impact on people's health."
"Independently of which methodology is used or what are the estimates, it is urgent to take action because the levels of air pollution in certain cities in India are very high, and this is definitely having impact on people's health," notec Neira, Director, Public Health, Environment and Social Determinants of Health Department (PHE), WHO.
"Therefore, we urge governments to take measures to reduce pollution, to reduce the massive damage this pollution is causing to health of their citizens, particularly in those cities where the levels of air pollution are far beyond those guidelines recommended by the WHO," she said.
A study published last year in The Lancet journal found that one out of every eight deaths in India in 2017 could be attributed to air pollution.
This study showed that India has a higher proportion of global health loss due to air pollution than its proportion of the global population.
Around 12.4 lakh deaths in India in 2017 can be attributed to air pollution, it said, terming toxic air a leading risk factor for deaths in the country.
The study also noted that the average life expectancy would have been 1.7 years higher if the pollution levels were less than the minimal level responsible for causing health loss.
WHO air quality guidelines estimate that reducing annual average fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations from levels of 35 microgrammes per cubic metre (µg/m3) to 10 µg/m3, could reduce air pollution-related deaths by around 15 per cent.
Neira urged the Indian Government to take urgent action to reduce the pollution levels, saying doing so will result in major health benefits.
“We are confident that based on the fact that this pollution can be reduced, Indian government, which has an enormous amount of expertise and competence will be doing their best to tackle the sources of pollution, to reduce the toxic levels that the citizens are exposed to at the moment, and start to monitor how the health situation of their citizens will be improved,” she said.
She said the evidence, interventions, and the plan of action to tackle air pollution is available.
"It is just the question of deciding to implement it as soon as possible because the more we delay those measures; the more we will have problems,” Neira added. (Source: The Economic Times)


The above Article can also be read using the link below:

India should take urgent action to tackle air pollution: WHO.

India to develop own certification facility for air pollution monitoring equipment - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

India to develop own certification facility for air pollution monitoring equipment.

• Local certification would help bring down costs and improve the measurement of air pollution and help scrutinize it.
• Govt asks the grossly polluting industries to submit real time data to the CPCB, which then evaluates whether a firm is complying with regulatory norms.
The National Physical Laboratory (NPL), one of the country’s premier research and development units, is developing India’s own certification facility for air pollution monitoring equipment. The move could boost the ‘Make in India’ initiative as NPL expects demand for such equipment to soar as part of the centre’s National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).
At least 40,000 such machines are being used by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and other government agencies, as well as private companies, to monitor air pollution levels, including both ambient and source-based emissions.

The Continuous Emission Monitoring System (CEMS), which was introduced in India in 2014, is used to measure source-based emissions from 17 categories of grossly polluting industries in real time. These industries are required by the government to submit real time data to the CPCB, which then evaluates whether a company is complying with regulatory norms.
However, the accuracy of this data has been a concern, as many of these instruments suffer from issues of calibration and certification.
How do we know whether the data being reported is accurate or not? Most of it is generated by equipment that has been manufactured abroad and certified by international agencies, in the US and Europe under environmental conditions that do not conform to Indian weather," said Dr C. Sharma, senior principal scientist at NPL.
High humidity levels, dusty weather and temperature variations in India could impact their long-term functioning. Unlike in the US and in Europe, where most certification agencies are located, India is a tropical country and there are huge temperature variations.
“If we have confidence about our data, we will be able to suggest mitigation options. At present, we do not know how accurate it is," said Dr K. Aswal, director, NPL.
This led the government to designate NPL as the certification agency for air pollution monitoring equipment. The project awarded by the ministry of environment, forests and climate change would be executed over two years with a proposed budget outlay of nearly ₹59 crore.
Certification of PM2.5 and PM10 volume samplers has already been established at NPL. This would now be extended to CEMS.
As the demand for the equipment increases over time and industries need to compulsorily install them in their chimneys, the local certification would not only help bring down costs, but also improve the measurement of air pollution and help scrutinize it.
The project would help Indian industries to manufacture the equipment in the country and get local certification, instead procuring them from outside.
“As we do not have a certification scheme for the equipment in India, the market is dependent on products manufactured abroad. So, there has been constant demand from the industry to have our own certification process, so that time and cost is reduced. It will help the industry to develop products in the country itself and ensure competitive pricing," said Dr Sharma.
The biggest advantage would be the confidence that the data is accurate.
Government or private agencies that want to get calibration and certification done for these equipment can do so from NPL. The process is not yet mandatory, but could be made a regulatory requirement to ensure compliance by private industries. (Source: Livemint)


The above Article can also be read using the link below:

India to develop own certification facility for air pollution monitoring equipment.

Indians lose over four years of their lives to air pollution: Study - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Indians lose over four years of their lives to air pollution: Study.

The AQLI establishes particulate pollution as the single greatest threat to human health globally.

People in India would live an average 4.3 years longer if the country met the global guidelines for particulate pollution, according to a study which found that effect of pollution on life expectancy is worse than HIV/AIDS, cigarette smoking, and even terrorism.
According to the new Air Quality Life Index (AQLI), developed by researchers at University of Chicago in the US, particulate air pollution cuts global average life expectancy by 1.8 years per person.
The AQLI establishes particulate pollution as the single greatest threat to human health globally, with its effect on life expectancy exceeding that of devastating communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, behavioural killers like cigarette smoking, and even war.
Critically, the AQLI reports these results in tangible terms that are relatable for most people.
“Around the world today, people are breathing air that represents a serious risk to their health. But the way this risk is communicated is very often opaque and confusing, translating air pollution concentrations into colors, like red, brown, orange and green,” said Michael Greenstone, a professor at Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC).
“My colleagues and I developed the AQLI, where the ‘L’ stands for ‘life,’ to address these shortcomings. It takes particulate air pollution concentrations and converts them into perhaps the most important metric that exists: life expectancy,” he said.
The AQLI is based on a pair of studies that quantify the causal relationship between long-term human exposure to particulate pollution and life expectancy.
Seventy-five percent of the global population, or 5.5 billion people, live in areas where particulate pollution exceeds the WHO guideline.
The AQLI reveals that India and China, which make up 36 per cent of the world’s population, account for 73 per cent of all years of life lost due to particulate pollution.
On average, people in India would live 4.3 years longer if the country met the WHO guideline -- expanding the average life expectancy at birth there from 69 to 73 years.
In the US, about a third of the population lives in areas not in compliance with the WHO guideline. Those living in the country’s most polluted counties could expect to live up to one year longer if pollution met the WHO guideline.
Globally, the AQLI reveals that particulate pollution reduces average life expectancy by 1.8 years, making it the greatest global threat to human health.
By comparison, first-hand cigarette smoke leads to a reduction in global average life expectancy of about 1.6 years. Other risks to human health have even smaller effects: Alcohol and drugs reduce life expectancy by 11 months; unsafe water and sanitation take off 7 months; and HIV/AIDS, 4 months.
Conflict and terrorism take off 22 days. So, the impact of particulate pollution on life expectancy is comparable to that of smoking, twice that of alcohol and drug use, three times that of unsafe water, five times that of HIV/AIDS, and more than 25 times that of conflict and terrorism.
“While people can stop smoking and take steps to protect themselves from diseases, there is little they can individually do to protect themselves from the air they breathe,” Greenstone said.
“The AQLI tells citizens and policymakers how particulate pollution is affecting them and their communities and reveals the benefits of policies to reduce particulate pollution,” he said. (Source:Livemint)


The above Article can also be read using the link below:

Indians lose over four years of their lives to air pollution: Study.

Air pollution causing one death in ten among children: WHO - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Air pollution causing one death in ten among children: WHO.

As many as 6 lakhs children died from acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI) caused by polluted air in 2016, accounting for almost 10% of all child deaths that year, according to WHO.

One in ten deaths in children across the world is being caused by air pollution, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report.

Air pollution and child health: Prescribing clean air, released on Monday, stated as many as 6 lakhs children died from acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI) caused by polluted air in 2016, accounting for almost 10% of all child deaths that year. Of these, at least 5.4 lakh were children under the age of 5 years.

“Polluted air is poisoning millions of children and ruining their lives,” says Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

The report highlights that after premature birth, ALRI is the leading killer of children under 5 years worldwide. And over half of all deaths from ALRI in low and middle-income countries are caused by breathing polluted air.

Globally, 93% of all children live in environments with air pollution levels above the WHO guidelines. India, with 14 out of 20 of the worlds’s most polluted cities in the world, stands as one of the most vulnerable countries.

According to WHO, pollution related mortality and disease burden is one of the highest in India, which accounts for 25% of the global deaths due to air pollution. In 2016, as many as 1 lakh children deaths under the age of 5 years in India were caused due to polluted air.

“Air pollution is stunting our children’s brains, affecting their health in more ways than we suspected,” says Maria Neira, Director, Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health, WHO.

Health experts highlight that one reason why children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of air pollution is that they breathe more rapidly than adults and so absorb more pollutants.

Pregnant women living in polluted cities are more prone to pregnancy issues, including premature births. A recent study presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress held in Paris also found evidence of tiny carbon particles in placenta for the first time, highlighting the alarming impact that air pollution could have on unborn babies.

Pollution not only triggers asthma but childhood cancer and can impact neuro-development and cognitive abilities. Children who have been exposed to high levels of air pollution may be at greater risk to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease later in life.

“Children have a longer life expectancy than adults, so latent disease mechanisms have more time to emerge and affect their health. A child who is exposed to unsafe levels of pollution early in life can thus suffer a ‘life sentence’ of illness,” stated the report. (Source: Livemint)

The above Article can also be read using the link below:

Air pollution causing one death in ten among children: WHO.

Govt to launch air pollution prediction system for Delhi on Oct 15 - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Govt to launch air pollution prediction system for Delhi on Oct 15.

The Centre will on October 15 launch an air pollution prediction system for Delhi, making it easier for government’s pollution watchdogs to alert stakeholders and general public about air quality 48 hours in advance. The move will give them adequate time to take precautionary measures.

The system - called Air Quality Early Warning System - will have an in-built web-based dissemination tools to inform public and enforcement agencies about episodic high pollution events in advance. Such information may be helpful for general public in planning their outdoor activities.

The system is jointly developed by the scientists of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) Pune, National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, Noida and India Meteorological Department (IMD).
“The system, developed under overall coordination of ministry of earth sciences (MoES), will be handed over to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for dissemination of air quality information to all stakeholders and general public through the web-based dissemination tools,” said the IMD chief, K J Ramesh.
He told TOI that the CPCB would alert the authorities about emergency situation (episodic high pollution events), if any, in advance for taking precautionary measures on the ground.
The system will be launched by the Union minister of earth sciences, Harsh Vardhan. The facility will be expanded to the entire NCR and other cities in due course.
The system is devised by mapping of emissions (pollutants) from various sources and analysing quality of meteorological fields in urban areas - be it local air circulation, topographic effect, low winds or breeze conditions in certain months.
It’ll draw data round-the-clock from the state-of-the-art Air Quality and Weather Forecast System – SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research) and different monitoring stations of the CPCB and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC).
The alerts will help the authorities initiate actions under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) which envisages specific steps for different levels of air quality.
“Great to hear this. At least now after a year of GRAP being in force, we will be able to take strict actions on polluting sources to avoid air pollution episodes in Delhi and NCR. The GRAP will be transformed from reactionary to precautionary now,” said Sunil Dahiya, clean air campaigner of the Greenpeace India. (Source: The Economic Times)


The above Article can also be read using the link below:

Govt to launch air pollution prediction system for Delhi on Oct 15.

NGT orders 23 states, UTs to prepare action plans to fight air pollution in 2 months - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

NGT orders 23 states, UTs to prepare action plans to fight air pollution in 2 months.

The National Green Tribunal has directed 23 states and Union territories, including the national capital Delhi and Chandigarh, to prepare action plans within two months to bring the air quality standard within the prescribed limit.

Noting that there are 102 cities where air quality does not meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, the panel formed an Air Quality Monitoring Committee (AQMC), comprising directors of environment, transport, industries, urban development, agriculture departments and member-secretary of state pollution control boards.
The NGT said the chief secretaries of the states and administrators of the Union territories will be personally accountable for failure to formulate action plans.
The states and Union territories asked to prepare action plans are: Maharashtra (17 cities); Uttar Pradesh (15); Punjab (9); Himachal Pradesh (7); Odisha and Madhya Pradesh (6 each); Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan (5 each); Karnataka (4), Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Telangana (3 each); Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland and
Uttarakhand (2 each); and Jharkhand, Delhi, Chandigarh, Meghalaya, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal (1 each).
The NGT said the AQMC will function under the supervision of principal secretary, environment, of the concerned state/UT.
“The action plans may take into account the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), the CAP and the action plan prepared by Central Pollution Control Board as well as all other relevant factors,” it said.
The tribunal has initiated proceedings in this matter on the basis of a newspaper report in an English daily on National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in the 102 cities.
The government has formulated the NCAP as a medium-term national level strategy to tackle the increasing air pollution problem across the country.
According to the news report, NCAP proposes to reduce pollution in the 102 cities gradually 35 per cent in next 3 years, 50 per cent in next 5 years and 70-80 per cent in next 10 years.
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said the action plans be placed before another committee comprising Prashant Gargava, member-secretary, CPCB, Mukesh Khare, professor, IIT-Delhi, and Mukesh Sharma, professor, IIT-Kanpur who shall examine the plans.
The action plans may be forwarded to the CPCB by December 31 and the CPCB chairman shall approve the same by January 31 next year, the bench said.
“The action plan will include components like identification of source and its apportionment considering sectors like vehicular pollution, industrial pollution, dust pollution, construction activities, garbage burning, agricultural pollution including pollution caused by burning of crop residue, residential and indoor pollution etc.
“The action plan shall also consider measures for strengthening of Ambient Air Quality (AAQ) monitoring and steps for public awareness including issuing of advisory to public for prevention and control of air pollution and involvement of schools, colleges and other academic institutions and awareness programmes,” it said.
The tribunal said action plans should be consistent with the “carrying capacity” assessment of these cities in terms of vehicular pollution, industrial emissions and population density, extent of construction and construction activities etc.
The NGT asked the CPCB and state pollution control boards to develop a public grievance redressal portal for air pollution complaints, and a supervisory mechanism for their time-bound disposal.
“The CPCB and states shall file a composite action plan with timelines for its execution which shall not be more than three months,” the tribunal said, adding that the Environment Ministry will provide the requisite fund for the purpose.
The tribunal will now consider the matter in the last week of February next year. (Source: rstv.nic.in)


The above Article can also be read using the link below:

NGT orders 23 states, UTs to prepare action plans to fight air pollution in 2 months.

Air pollution lowers brain function, can lead to lower verbal and maths scores: Study - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Air pollution lowers brain function, can lead to lower verbal and maths scores: Study.

The world’s top 20 most polluted cities, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) database, are in developing countries. Almost all the cities in low- and middle-income countries with more than 1,00,000 residents fail to meet WHO air quality guidelines.

Long-term exposure to air pollution lowers brain function, which reflects in decreased verbal and mathematics scores, apart from causing heart disease and breathing problems, a new study from China has said.
“... a narrow focus on the negative effect on health may underestimate the total cost of air pollution. Our findings imply that the indirect effect of pollution on social welfare could be much larger than previously thought,” Xiaobo Zhang, one of the authors of the paper, said.
The study retrospectively analysed data of nearly 32,000 people from two waves (2010 and 2014) of the China Family Panel Study, a nationally representative longitudinal survey that looks at topics like economic activities, education outcome, family dynamics, relationships, and health.
The cognitive ability module of the test has standardised mathematics and word-recognition questions and was sorted in ascending order of difficulty. The score given was the highest rank of a question that a person was able to answer. This dataset was then compared to the local pollution data.
The researchers were able to show that the scores of the cognitive module of the test fell with increased long-term and transient exposure to air pollution. The decline was more pronounced in the verbal tests than in mathematics.
When the results were plotted based on gender and educational qualification, the researchers saw that men 44 years or older with primary school education were the most impacted. For subsample with more education, men 65 years and above were impacted.
“We speculate that the pollutant damage is most likely accumulating in the white matter of the brain which is mainly associated with the language functioning. The negative impact of three-year accumulative exposure to air pollution for men’s verbal test scores is 49% higher than that for women,” Zhang, who is also a senior research fellow with the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), said.
“This could be because men have a much smaller amount of white matter activated during intelligence tests so their cognitive performance is more affected. Of course, more research is needed to test this out,” Zhang added.
The research estimated that reducing fine particulate matter concentrations to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standard (50 μg/m3) would increase verbal and math scores by 2.41 and 0.39 points.
Though the research was conducted in China, the researchers suggest that the implications would be true for all developing countries, including India.
The world’s top 20 most polluted cities, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) database, are in developing countries. Almost all the cities in low- and middle-income countries with more than 1,00,000 residents fail to meet WHO air quality guidelines.
“The findings should be applicable to India. In fact, the impact probably is greater given that the air pollution is more severe in Delhi than in Beijing and other Chinese cities,” said Zhang.
Doctors from India said the study was a good start but added that more research is required to show that the impact of air pollution on the human brain is definitive.
“The study points a way. However, the researchers have retrospectively analysed the data and tried to fit it into a mathematical model. This can just show a correlation between high pollution levels and lower scores,” Dr Vinay Goyal, professor of neurology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), said.
“Also, what about the socio-economic parameters? Most likely than not the people living in the most polluted areas are the poorest, they might not fare well on the test, not because of pollution but also because of the missing opportunities,” Dr Goyal, who is also the editor of the journal Annals of Indian Academy of Neurology, added. (Source: The Hindustan Times)


The above Article can also be read using the link below:

Air pollution lowers brain function, can lead to lower verbal and maths scores: Study.