New Delhi:
A latest report has suggested that the ever increasing air pollution may be fatal for people. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has released a new report that claims people in the two of the most populous countries are losing an average of two years of their lives due to air pollution.
The report states that people in China will have a reduced life expectancy of 25 months and people in India will lose 23 months from their average life expectancy.
According to the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, air in Delhi is very toxic due to high concentration of Particulate Matter (PM), which is the sum of all the solid and liquid particles suspended in air. The matter has been recorded at 2.5. The high level of PM concentration can cause respiratory illness on prolonged exposure since it penetrates deeply into lungs.
Besides, it has also been reported that Delhi might record world’s largest premature deaths in another 10 years due to excessive air pollution. Moreover air pollution causes disease, death to humans, and damage to other living organisms such as food crops, or the natural or built environment. Some of the pollutants that are present in the environment include sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, toxic metals such as lead and mercury, ammonia, chlorofluorocarbons which can harm the ozone layer and many more.
Let’s take a look at some of the facts on air pollution: (1) Inhaling air pollution takes away at least 1-2 years of a human life; (2) It has effects as small as burning eyes to as large as death; (3) Pollutants that are released into the air are the most harmful than the pollutants released in water and land; (4) The air pollution in Beijing has brought a new disease called the Beijing cough; (5) Toxic air pollution poses a greater threat to children because of their smaller physical size and lung capacity.
Furthermore, reports say that air pollution in India is estimated to cause 527,700 deaths, every year and also by 2050, 6 million people will die per year due to air pollution. Indoor air pollution is 2-5 times worse than the air outdoors, suggest the reports.
