Dangerous level of pollution in Delhi-Kolkata, shocking figures surfaced

For the last several years, it has always been discussed that pollution is increasing continuously in the national capital Delhi. In this episode, the revelations that have come to the fore in a recent report are quite shocking. According to a new report released by the Health Effects Institute, Delhi and Kolkata are among the two most polluted cities in the world. Five cities in China and three in India are included in the 20 most polluted cities in the world.

American Health Effects Institute report

A report by the American Health Effects Institute shows that between 106 and 99 people died per one lakh population in Delhi and Kolkata in 2019 due to PM 2.5 pollution. This report has placed the capital of India at 6th position with 106 deaths per 1 lakh population due to PM 2.5. On the other hand, Kolkata has come in 8th place with 99 deaths per 100,000 people.

Air pollution in more than 7000 cities around the world

At the same time, the capital of China is in the first place due to 124 such deaths due to PM 2.5. This report puts forth a comprehensive and detailed analysis of air pollution and global health impacts for more than 7,000 cities around the world. It focused on the two most harmful pollutants fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2).

Asia Africa and East-Central Europe are most affected

According to the report, in the year 2019, there were 1.7 million deaths due to PM 2.5 in 7,239 cities, with the biggest health impacts in the cities of Asia, Africa, and Eastern and Central Europe. The death rate due to the highest level of PM 2.5 in Beijing in 2019 was 124. Delhi and Kolkata were ranked sixth and eighth in the rankings. The report said that all the 20 cities with the highest increase in mortality due to PM 2.5 are located in South-East Asia.

Cities in Indonesia and Malaysia included

This report includes 19 cities in Indonesia and cities in Malaysia. In these 20 cities, the amount of PM 2.5 increased by more than 10 micrograms per cubic meter. Using data from 2010-11 to 2019-20, global patterns of exposure to the two major air pollutants are surprisingly different. While the risk of PM 2.5 pollution is higher in low- and middle-income countries, NO2 is a threat in high-income as well as low- and middle-class cities.

What is worrying in this report is that a large number of global cities across the world have exceeded the World Health Organization's (WHO) criteria for both PM 2.5 and NO2. The report found Delhi's average PM 2.5 exposure in 2019 to be 110 micrograms per cubic meter, which is 22 times the WHO benchmark of 5 micrograms per cubic meter. Kolkata's average exposure was 84 micrograms per cubic meter.

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