54,000 Premature Deaths In New Delhi In 2020 due to Air Pollution: Study

Air pollution caused an estimated 54,000 premature deaths in New Delhi last year, a higher toll than in any other big global metropolis, according to a study released recently. Mumbai with around 25,000 premature deaths in 2020 also featured prominently.

A new study by Greenpeace Southeast Asia Analysis and Swiss firm IQAir measured air quality by recording the concentration of poisonous PM2.5 particles (pollutant which are less than 2.5 microns in diameter) and can cause deadly diseases, including respiratory, cancer and cardiac problems.

Last year they also made people more susceptible to coronavirus infection, according to the study.

In Delhi, the PM2.5 reading peaked in November when it was 30 times above the World Health Organization's safe limit, the study showed.

On the number of deaths caused, there was no comparison with 2019. However a similar study in The Lancet put the toll as 1.67 million lives lost in India as a whole in 2019 due to toxic air.

"Polluted air increases the likelihood of deaths due to cancer and stroke, spikes in asthma attacks and worsened severity of COVID-19 symptoms," said Avinash Chanchal of Greenpeace India.

Following a nationwide lockdown to contain CoronaVirus related ailments pollution in Delhi had almost disappeared but it returned after the government began lifting restrictions at the end of August.

"The need of the hour is to rapidly scale up renewable energy, bring an end to fossil fuel emissions and boost sustainable and accessible transport systems," the report said, referring to big cities around the world including in India.