Air pollution shortening life, time to act: US economist

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, November 27

Air pollution has become a big threat to the humankind and is more harmful for health than smoking, consumption of alcohol and drug abuse. Pollution is shortening the life expectancy of human beings and it is high time that governments and communities across the globe pull up their socks and act to minimise it.

Prof Michael Greenstone, noted economist and Director of Energy Policy Institute at University of Chicago, said this while delivering Chaudhry Ranbir Singh memorial lecture on ‘Air Quality in India: Health Challenge and Some Feasible Solutions’ here on Tuesday.

Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his son and Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda attended the event organised on the premises of Maharshi Dayanand University in Rohtak.

Prof Greenstone, who has served as Chief Economist in former US President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, said that a person living in Rohtak could live up to eight years longer if the air quality is kept within the standards prescribed by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Greenstone’s study indicates that the average PM 2.5 concentration in Rohtak is 95, which is almost 10 times higher than the limits prescribed by the WHO and only marginally lower than the reading of 114 recorded in the national capital. The national average for India is 54, which is more than five times the WHO standards.

“Air quality has become a serious cause for concern, as 75 per cent of the global population, or 5.5 billion people, live in areas where particulate pollution exceeds the WHO guidelines,” he added.

The expert said on an average, people in India would live 4.3 years longer if their country met the WHO guidelines. “The problem of air pollution is more severe in the northern part of India or the Gangetic plains. In the USA, about a third of the population lives in areas with pollution levels higher than the WHO guidelines,” he added.

He said that improving enforcement of existing laws and regulations would show good results in this regard.

Deepender Hooda, who had brought a private members’ bill on Right to Clean Air in Parliament, said that the declining air quality had already reached dangerous levels and a coordinated approach towards solving the problem is the need of the hour.

“We need to make right to clean air a fundamental right for all citizens and have a national committee, action plan and adequate budget,” the MP said, adding that some long-term sustainable solutions are required, instead of ad hoc measures and attributing air pollution to stubble burning and bursting of fire-crackers on Diwali.