Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar, while speaking in Parliament on Friday, said that there was no Indian study that established any connection between air pollution and reduced life span. After this comment of his, the World Health Organization (WHO) has rebuked Javadekar for stating that air pollution has no impact on public health. WHO officials said, ¡°We wish it didn¡¯t kill people but unfortunately it does.¡±
WHO Director (public health), Dr Maria Neira, said that there are strong scientific evidences that show exposure to pollution has major impact on people¡¯s health.
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¡°Independent of which methodology is used or what are the estimates, it is urgent to take action because the levels of air pollution in certain cities in India are very high and this is definitely having an impact on the health of citizens. The evidence is available and so are the interventions, the expertise is there and so is the plan of action. We urge the Indian government, which has enormous amounts of expertise and competencies, to do its best in tackling the sources of air pollution and reducing toxic pollutants that citizens are exposed to at the moment,¡± TOI quoted her as saying.?
WHO¡¯S Climate Lead, Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, while reacting to the environment minister¡¯s statement said, ¡°We have brought together and analysed tens of thousands of studies showing effect of air pollution on health from every population of the world. We are yet to find a study which shows any population, including India, which is immune from the health impacts of air pollution.¡±
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Javadekar had also questioned the reliability of the existing studies, saying that they are not based on first-generation data.
In response to that, TOI?reports a top? government hospital in the country as saying,?¡°Taking first-generation data is next to impossible as it is a very long procedure. Though there are no long-term studies available in India, we can look at the global data and extrapolate it to the Indian population. While there can be few marginal errors in modelling studies, they can¡¯t be completely inaccurate.¡± The doctor also stated that there are various international studies that draw a relation between long-term exposure to high-level air pollution and an overall effect on the lifespan.
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Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) published a study in December 2018, which stated that the ¡®average life expectancy in India would have been 1.7 years higher if the air pollution levels were less than the minimal level causing health loss¡¯. The study also stated that one in eight deaths in 2017, in India, were caused by air pollution.?
Despite such concrete studies based on real data, the environment minister chose to turn a blind eye to alarming figures. Air pollution is one of the leading causes of deaths in India and it needs to be tackled head-on. Simply stating that it does nothing, perhaps to shirk responsibility, is not going to make the situation better.