State of Global Air 2020 released by the Health Effects Institute

State of Global Air 2020 released by the Health Effects Institute

Part of: GS Prelims and GS-III – Pollution 

In news

• Recently, State of Global Air 2020 was released by the Health Effects Institute (HEI).
• HEI is an independent, nonprofit research institute funded jointly by the USA’s Environmental Protection Agency and others.

Key takeaways 

• It highlights that air pollution is the largest risk factor for death among all health risks. 
• It is the first-ever comprehensive analysis of air pollution’s global impact on new-borns.

• India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal are among the top ten countries with the highest PM2.5 (particulate matter) exposures in 2019. 
• All these countries also experienced increases in outdoor PM2.5 levels between 2010 and 2019.
• India is also among the top ten countries with highest Ozone (O3) exposure in 2019. 
• Among the 20 most populous countries, India recorded the highest increase (17%) in O3 concentrations in the past ten years.
• Long-term exposure to outdoor and household (indoor) air pollution contributed to over 1.67 million annual deaths from stroke, heart attack, diabetes, lung cancer, chronic lung diseases, and neonatal diseases, in India in 2019.

Do you know? 

• High PM contributed to the deaths of more than 1, 16, 000 Indian infants who did not survive their first month. 
• More than half of these deaths were associated with outdoor PM2.5 and others were linked to the use of solid fuels such as charcoal, wood, and animal dung for cooking.