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August 13, 2018

Over half billion Indians exposed to hazardous air, Delhiites dying 6 years prematurely

Mirror Now News references findings from EPIC's Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) tool, which calculates how air pollution affects life expectancy by location.

The air pollution in India has taken on endemic proportions with researchers claiming that over 660 million citizens are exposed to high air pollution in real time. The fine particulate matter (PM2.5) was found to be exceeding the permissible limits in areas of high population and poses a grave risk to all citizens. It was deduced that an average person residing in Delhi died six years earlier due to its air being far below the national standard.

The findings were a part of a report called ‘A Roadmap Towards Cleaning India’s Air’ which was a part of policy recommendations done by a team of researchers from Harvard Kennedy School and the University of Chicago.

The researchers worked with a number of state pollution control boards for many years to come up with the recommendations. Talking to IANS, a spokesperson for Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC-India) said that they had come up with an air quality life index (AQLI) which would help in finding out the long term effect of living in areas having high air pollution and predict the reduction in a person’s life due to the impact of air pollution.

Continue reading at Mirror Now News…