GS 3: Environment | Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Why in News?

The State of Global Air 2019 was released by US-based organisation Health Effects Institute (HEI). As per the report over 1.2 million people died in India due to air pollution in 2017.

Highlights:

• The overall long-term exposure to outdoor and indoor air pollution contributed to nearly 5 million deaths from stroke, diabetes, heart attack, lung cancer, and chronic lung disease in 2017.
• Out of these, 3 million deaths are directly attributed to PM2.5, half of which is from India and China together.
• The analysis found that China and India together were responsible for over half of the total global attributable deaths, with each country facing over 1.2 million deaths from all air pollution in 2017.
• Air pollution is the third highest cause of death among all health risks in India, ranking just above smoking.
• As per the report, the life of a South Asian child born today will be shortened by two years and six months growing up in current high levels of air pollution, while the global life expectancy loss is 20 months.