In the News
September 12, 2017
If India reduced its air pollution to comply with the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) air quality standards, its people could live about four years longer on average, the Air Quality-Life Index (AQLI) released today by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, shows.
Among India’s most populous cities, the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi would make the most impressive gains in average life expectancy (9 years), followed by Agra (8.1 years) and Bareilly (7.8 years).
The index estimates the number of years a country could add to its people’s lives by meeting national or WHO standards for PM2.5–particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in size, or 30 times finer than a human hair, which, when inhaled, can enter deep into the lungs and sometimes the bloodstream to cause serious harm.
By providing the actual impact on lifespans, AQLI goes a step beyond India’s National Air Quality Index (AQI), which measures the presence of eight pollutants in the air and ranks their levels into six categories of severity.
AQLI shows that by reducing PM2.5 pollution to below the Indian standard–as set by the Central Pollution Control Board, and less stringent than the WHO standard–Indians could live 1.35 years longer on average.