Researchers found that India, along with China and Japan, were the three leading countries in Asia in terms of number of new cases and deaths, where they say cancer has become a more significant public health threat with 94 lakh new cases and 56 lakh deaths in 2019.
In India, air pollution is most severe in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (northern India), where topography and meteorology concentrate pollution from energy, mobility, industry, agriculture, and other activities, the researchers said.
India had 14 out of the world's 20 most polluted cities, the World Health Organization reveals.
The green body's report said three of the world's largest nitrogen oxide air pollution emission hotspots that contribute to formation of PM2.5 and ozone are in India with one in the Delhi-NCR.
In 2012, with one million deaths, China reported the highest toll from PM2.5 and PM10 pollution. At the time, India followed, reporting 621,138 deaths, nearly 10 per cent of the global toll associated with outdoor and indoor air pollution
The researchers discovered that just a 4.6 ppb reduction in long-term exposure to NO2 would have prevented 14,672 deaths among those who tested positive for the virus.
A special bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana, in an interim order uploaded Wednesday night, also directed the Commission for Air Quality Management in the NCR and Adjoining Areas to 'commission a scientific study of air quality based on available data of previous years bearing upon recorded levels of air pollution'.
According to a study by the medical journal, the Lancet, air pollution has emerged as the deadliest form of pollution and the fourth leading risk factor for premature deaths worldwide.
The industrialised world must work fast.
The Supreme Court imposed a green tax on trucks destined for other states but wanting to take a shorter route through Delhi.
'COPD causes an economic loss of Rs 35,000 crores.' 'We cannot afford to lose such a huge amount due to one disease.' 'COPD is a non-communicable disease and that's why it remained low in priority.' 'The time is right to shift the focus to COPD as HIV/AIDS and TB are under control. 'This badly neglected disease has become the second largest cause for deaths in India.' 'It is time for us to wake up and give due importance to this disease.'
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