New Delhi, Dec 23: Nearly 1.7 million people would have died in India in 2019 due to air pollution, a recent study said. This was about 18 percent of the total deaths in the country the study noted. Besides this, economic loss due to the lost output from premature deaths and morbidity from air pollution was 1.4 percent of the GDP i.e. 260,000 crore during this time, according reports.

This was stated in a scientific study paper titled “Health and economic impact of air pollution in the states of India: The Global Burden of Disease Study 2019”.

The study published in ‘The Lancet Planetary Health’, noted the trends in health loss due to air pollution and its economic impact in every state of India using the latest improved methods and data. The data released indicated that household air pollution was decreasing in India, resulting in 64 percent reduction in the death rate attributable to it from 1990 to 2019 whereas the death rate due to outdoor ambient air pollution increased during this period by 115 percent.

“The economic loss due to air pollution as a percentage of the state GDP was higher in the northern and central India states. It was the highest in Uttar Pradesh (2.2% of GDP) and Bihar (2% of GDP). India would benefit from investing further in state-specific air pollution control strategies, as this will facilitate its aspiration of reaching a US$5 trillion economy by 2024,” said the paper.

“The findings in this analysis show that while 40% of the disease burden due to air pollution is from lung diseases, the remaining 60% is from ischemic heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and neonatal deaths related to pre-term birth, highlighting the broad-ranging impact of air pollution on human health,” ‘The Hindu’ quoted Balram Bhargava, Director General, ICMR as saying.