Nearly 15,000 premature deaths due to air pollution in Delhi: Study

The PM2.5-related health impacts are notable for megacities across the globe, but Asian megacities have been suffering much more, the study said.

The phenomenon of smog-hit cities became so common recently that the term airpocalypse has become synonymous with polluted air, it said.

This study reports PM2.5-related long-term mortality for the year 2016 in 13 megacities of China, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan using an integrated exposure risk (IER) model.

In Indian megacities, the premature deaths were 14,800, 10,500, 7,300, 4,800 and 4,800 in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai respectively.

Though China has taken initial steps with pollution control targets and strategy, there was an urgent need for government policy in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, the study said.

This study highlighted the need for setting up decisive air quality targets by megacity authorities and advocates for joint regional efforts to control air pollution.