Air pollution might not seem to be an immediate concern with the only issues being a cough and perhaps burning eyes. But what most of us fail to realize is that air pollution health effects range from losing your mental faculties to even increasing your chances of getting diabetes, one of the biggest killers in India.

From our mental faculties and the reproductive cycle to even hiking chances of diabetes, air pollution has a head-to-toe negative effect on human health.

How bad is air pollution?
We often ask ourselves – How bad is air pollution really?

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3. Indians are dying four years early, thanks to air pollution
As per a 2018 study, particulate pollution is so severe that it shortens the average Indian’s life expectancy by more than four years relative to what it would be if WHO air quality guidelines were met.

This is up from about two years in the late 1990s due to a 69 per cent increase in particulate pollution, the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) said.

Concentrations in Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, and the National Capital Territory of Delhi are substantially higher. The study shows that the impact on life expectancy is greater in these areas, with a shortage of six years in the average lifespan of residents.

The new air pollution index, known as the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI), finds that air pollution reduces global life expectancy by nearly two years, making it the single greatest threat to human health.

What makes AQLI unique is that it converts pollution into perhaps the most important metric that exists — life expectancy.

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