A new study authored by Michael Greenstone, director of Energy Policy Institute at Chicago, with prominent economists and public policy experts from Yale and Harvard University, has concluded that almost 660 million people, which is half of India’s population, could add 3.2 years to their lifespan if air quality met the national safe standard.
The study looks at air quality data in different parts of the country from pollution control boards and satellite data.
The study estimates that 660 million people (54.5% of the population) live in regions that do not meet the annual PM 2.5 (particulate matter) standard of 40 microgramme per cubic metre, and 262 million people (21.7% of the population) live in regions with air pollution levels more than twice this standard. The figures are drawn using the 2011 census data.
Almost every Indian (1,204 million people, or 99.5% of the population) lives in an area with PM 2.5 pollution level, above the World Health Organisation’s 10 microgramme per cubic metre guideline.
Michael Greenstone said,“India’s focus is necessarily on growth. But for too long, the conventional definition of growth has ignored the health consequences of air pollution. The study shows that air pollution retards growth by causing people to die prematurely. Other studies have also shown that air pollution reduces productivity at work, increases incidence of sick days, and raises health care expenses that could be devoted to other goods.
The authors of the study recommend three policy measures for the Indian government:
- To increase real-time air quality monitoring stations in all parts of the country. The best example is of Beijing, which has 35 monitoring stations. Kolkata, the Indian city with the maximum number of monitoring stations, has only 20. Increased monitoring can play an important role as a health advisory system and as a means of increasing pressure on polluters to comply with existing regulations.
- To rely on civil instead of criminal penalties to charge a polluter. This is because many environmental laws are built on an outdated criminal system with penalties such as imprisonment or closure of industries, which are often difficult to enforce.
- Market-based mechanisms for environmental regulation like the emissions trading system (ETS), based on rigorous monitoring of pollution and financial penalties.
