Polluted air cuts life expectancy by 2 years, South Asia and India most affected, China improving
- Across South Asia, the average person would live five years longer if levels of fine particulate matter met World Health Organization standards
- PM2.5 pollution fell in China by almost 40 per cent between 2013 and 2020, adding two years to life the expectancy in country with 1.4 billion people
Microscopic air pollution caused mostly by burning fossil fuels shortens lives worldwide by more than two years, researchers reported on Tuesday.
In the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, home to 300 million, crippling lung and heart disease caused by so-called PM2.5 pollution reduces life expectancy by eight years, and in the capital city of New Delhi by a decade.
PM2.5 pollution – 2.5 microns across or less, roughly the diameter of a human hair – penetrates deep into the lungs and enters the bloodstream.
The WHO says PM2.5 density in the air should not top 15 microgrammes per cubic metre in any 24-hour period, or 5mcg/m3 averaged across an entire year.
Faced with mounting evidence of damaging health impacts, the WHO tightened these standards last year, the first change since establishing air quality guidance in 2005.