Mounting economic costs of India’s killer smog

By AFP
November 23, 2024

New Delhi is choked every year in noxious smog that authorities appear powerless to bring under control - Copyright AFP Money SHARMA

Arunabh SAIKIA

Noxious smog smothering the plains of north India is not only choking the lungs of residents and killing millions, but also slowing the country’s economic growth.

India’s capital New Delhi frequently ranks among the world’s most polluted cities. Each winter, vehicle and factory emissions couple with farm fires from surrounding states to blanket the city in a dystopian haze.

Acrid smog this month contains more than 50 times the World Health Organization recommended limit of fine particulate matter — dangerous cancer-causing microparticles known as PM2.5 pollutants, that enter the bloodstream through the lungs.

Experts say India’s worsening air pollution is having a ruinous impact on its economy — with one study estimating losses to the tune of $95 billion annually, or roughly three percent of the country’s GDP.

The true extent of the economic price India is paying could be even greater.

“The externality costs are huge and you can’t assign a value to it,” said Vibhuti Garg, of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

Bhargav Krishna of the Delhi-based research collective Sustainable Futures Collaborative said “costs add up in every phase”.

“From missing a day at work to developing chronic illness, the health costs associated with that, to premature death and the impact that has on the family of the person,” Krishna told AFP.



– ‘Health and wealth hazard’-



Still, several studies have tried to quantify the damage.

One by the global consultancy firm Dalberg concluded that in 2019, air pollution cost Indian businesses $95 billion due to “reduced productivity, work absences and premature death”.

The amount is nearly three percent of India’s budget, and roughly twice its annual public health expenditure.

“India lost 3.8 billion working days in 2019, costing $44 billion to air pollution caused by deaths,” according to the study which calculated that toxic air “contributes to 18 percent of all deaths in India”.

Pollution has also had a debilitating impact on the consumer economy because of direct health-related eventualities, the study said, reducing footfall and causing annual losses of $22 billion.

The numbers are even more staggering for Delhi, the epicentre of the crisis, with the capital province losing as much as six percent of its GDP annually to air pollution.

Restaurateur Sandeep Anand Goyle called the smog a “health and wealth hazard”.

“People who are health conscious avoid stepping out so we suffer,” said Goyle, who heads the Delhi chapter of the National Restaurant Association of India.

Tourism has also been impacted, as the smog season coincides with the period when foreigners traditionally visit northern India — too hot for many during the blisteringly hot summers.

“The smog is giving a bad name to India’s image,” said Rajiv Mehra of the Indian Association of Tour Operators.

Delhi faces an average 275 days of unhealthy air a year, according to monitors.

– ‘Premature deaths’ –

Piecemeal initiatives by the government — — that critics call half-hearted — have failed to adequately address the problem.

Academic research indicates that its detrimental impact on the Indian economy is adding up.

A 2023 World Bank paper said that air pollution’s “micro-level” impacts on the economy translate to “macro-level effects that can be observed in year-to-year changes in GDP”.

The paper estimates that India’s GDP would have been 4.5 percent higher at the end of 2023, had the country managed to curb pollution by half in the previous 25 years.

Another study published in the Lancet health journal on the direct health impacts of air pollution in 2019 estimated an annual GDP deceleration of 1.36 percent due to “lost output from premature deaths and morbidity”.

Desperate emergency curbs — such as shuttering schools to reduce traffic emissions as well as banning construction — come with their own economic costs.

“Stopping work for weeks on end every winter makes our schedules go awry, and we end up overshooting budgets,” said Sanjeev Bansal, the chairman of the Delhi unit of the Builders Association of India.

Pollution’s impact on the Indian economy is likely to get worse if action is not taken.

With India’s median age expected to rise to 32 by 2030, the Dalberg study predicts that “susceptibility to air pollution will increase, as will the impact on mortality”.

Why is it still so hard to breathe in India and Pakistan?

The world’s worst air pollution is getting worse, but there are concrete ways to fix it.


by Umair Irfan

Nov 22, 2024

VOX

Commuters step out in a foggy winter morning amid rising air pollution, on November 19, 2024 on the outskirts of Delhi in India. 

Sunil Ghosh/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

India and Pakistan are losing ground to a common deadly enemy. Vast clouds of dense, toxic smog have once again shrouded metropolises in South Asia. Air pollution regularly spikes in November in the subcontinent, but this year’s dirty air has still been breathtaking in its scale and severity. The gray, smoky pollution is even visible to satellites, and it’s fueling a public health crisis.


Last week, officials in the Punjab province in Pakistan imposed lockdowns on the cities of Multan, population 2.1 million, and Lahore, population 13.7 million, after reaching record-high pollution levels. “Smog is currently a national disaster,” senior Punjab provincial minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said during a press conference last week. Schools shut down, restaurants closed, construction halted, highways sat empty, and medical staff were recalled to hospitals and clinics.

Across the border in India, the 33 million residents of Delhi this week are breathing air pollution that’s 50 times higher than the safe limit outlined by the World Health Organization (WHO). The choking haze caused 15 aircraft to divert to nearby airports and caused hundreds of delays. Students and workers were told to stay home.

Despite all the disruption, air pollution continues to spike year after year after year.

Why? The dirty air arises from a confluence of human and natural factors. Construction, cooking fires, brick kilns, vehicles, and burning leftovers from crop harvests are all feeding into the toxic clouds. The Himalaya and Hindu Kush mountains to the north of lower-lying areas like Lahore and Delhi hold the smog in place. In the winter, the region experiences thermal inversions, where a layer of warm air pushes down on cool winter air, holding the pollution closer to the ground.

As populations grow in South Asia, so will the need for food, energy, housing, and transportation. Without a course correction, that will mean even more pollution. Yet history shows that air pollution is a solvable problem. Cities like Los Angeles and Beijing that were once notorious for dirty air have managed to clean it up. The process took years, drawing on economic development and new technologies. But it also required good governance and incentives to cut pollution, something local officials in India and Pakistan have already demonstrated can clear the air. The task now is to scale it up to higher levels of government.

We’re still not getting the full picture of the dangers of air pollution

There’s no shortage of science showing how terrible air pollution is for you. It aggravates asthma, worsens heart disease, triggers inflammation, and increases infection risk. It hampers brain development in children and can contribute to dementia in adults.

On average, air pollution has reduced life expectancies around the world by 2.3 years, more than tobacco. It contributes to almost 7 million deaths per year, according to WHO, about one in nine deaths annually. It sucks trillions of dollars out of the global economy.

The toll is especially acute in South Asia. Air pollution drains 3.9 years of life in Pakistan. In India, it steals 5.3 years. For workers who spend their days outdoors — delivery drivers, construction crews, farm laborers — the damage is even higher. Many residents report constant fevers, coughs, and headaches.

Despite the well-known dangers and the mounting threat, it remains a persistent problem.

Part of the challenge of improving air quality is that air pollution isn’t just one thing; it’s a combination of hazardous chemicals and particles that arise in teeming metropolises in developing countries.

One of the most popular metrics around the world for tracking pollution is the Air Quality Index, developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The index is not a measurement of any one pollutant, but rather the risk from a combination of pollutants based on US air quality standards. The main villains are ground-level ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particles. The particles are subcategorized into those smaller than 10 microns (PM10) and smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5). (Earlier this year, the EPA modified the way it calculates the AQI, so numbers from this year are not an apples-to-apples comparison to levels from previous years.) The tiny particles are pernicious because they penetrate deep into the lungs and trigger breathing problems.

Related:The Air Quality Index and how to use it, explained

An AQI below 50 is considered safe to breathe. Above 200, the air is considered a health threat for everyone. At 300, it’s an emergency. In Delhi, the AQI this week reached 1,185. Lahore reached 1,900 this month. If a person breathes this air for over 24 hours, the exposure is roughly equivalent to smoking 90 cigarettes in a day.

Lahore, Pakistan, on a day when the air quality index was 37 (left) and on a day when the air quality index was 496 (right). Dawar Hameed Butt/Nature


However, air pollution poses a threat long before it’s visible. “Your eye is not a good detector of air pollution in general,” said Christi Chester Schroeder, the air quality science manager at IQAir, a company that builds air quality monitoring instruments and collects pollution data. “The pollutant that you have to be really careful about in terms of not being able to see it but experiencing it is ozone. Ozone levels can be extremely high on sunny days.”



IQAir has a network of air quality sensors across South Asia, including regions like Lahore and Delhi. The company tracks pollution in real time using its own sensors as well as monitors bought by schools, businesses, and ordinary people. Their professional-grade air monitors can cost more than $20,000 but they also sell consumer air quality trackers that cost $300. Both sources help paint a picture of pollution.


Many schools and businesses across South Asia have installed their own pollution monitors. The US maintains its own air quality instruments at its consulates and embassies in India and Pakistan as well.


Schroeder noted however that IQAir’s instruments are geared toward monitoring particles like PM2.5 and don’t easily allow a user to make inferences about concentrations of other pollutants like sulfur oxides and where they’re coming from. “When you’re looking at places that have a really big mixture of sources — like you have a mixture of transportation and fires and climate inversion conditions — then it gets to be much murkier and you can’t really sort of pull it apart that way,” Schroeder said.

Politics lies at the core of the air pollution problem


Air quality monitors in India and Pakistan show that air pollution can vary over short distances — between neighborhoods or even street by street — and that it can change rapidly through the day. Nearby bus terminals, power plants, or cooking fires contribute a lot to local pollution, but without tracking systems in the vicinity, it can be hard to realize how bad the situation has become.

“I think the most surprising, interesting, and scary thing, honestly, is seeing the levels of pollution in areas that haven’t been monitored before,” Schroeder said.


Another complication is that people also experience pollution far away from where it’s produced. “This automatically creates a big governance challenge because the administrator who is responsible for providing you clean air in your jurisdiction is not actually the administrator who is governing over the polluting action,” said Saad Gulzar, an assistant professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University.


Take crop stubble burning, which accounts for up to 60 percent of the air pollution in the region this time of year. In late fall, farmers in northern India and Pakistan harvest rice and plant wheat. With little time between the reaping and sowing, the fastest and cheapest way for many farmers to clear their fields of leftover stems, leaves, and roots is to burn it. The resulting smoke then wafts from rural areas into urban centers.


The challenge is that farmers and urbanites are different political constituencies, and it’s hard to demand concessions from the former to benefit the latter. It has led to bitter political fights in both countries and between them. Farmers also point out that the reason they have so little time between crops is because of water conservation laws: To cope with groundwater depletion, officials in India imposed regulations to limit rice planting until after monsoon rains arrive in the early summer to top up reservoirs. Delaying planting means delaying harvest, hence the rush to clear their fields.

Related:The law that’s helping fuel Delhi’s deadly air pollution


Both India and Pakistan have even gone as far as to arrest farmers who burn crop stubble, but there are millions of farmers spread out over a vast area, stretching enforcement thin. However, local efforts to control smoke from crop burning have proven effective when local officials are motivated to act.


Gulzar co-authored a study published in October in the journal Nature, looking at air pollution and its impacts across India and Pakistan. Examining satellite data and health records over the past decade, the paper found that who is in charge of a jurisdiction plays a key role in air pollution — and could also be the key to solving it.


When a district is likely to experience pollution from a fire within its own boundaries, bureaucrats and local officials take more aggressive action to mitigate it, whether that’s paying farmers not to burn stubble, providing them with tools to clear fields without fires, or threatening them with fines and arrest. That led fires within a district to drop by 14.5 percent and future burning to decline by 13 percent. These air pollution reductions led to measurable drops in childhood mortality. On the other hand, if the wind is poised to push pollution from crop burning over an adjacent district, fires increase by 15 percent.

Traders and customers gathered at a wholesale fish market engulfed in smog in Lahore, Pakistan, on November 21, 2024.

 Arif Ali/AFP via Getty Images


The results show that simply motivating officials to act at local, regional, and national levels is a key step in reducing air pollution and that progress can begin right away.

But further air quality improvements will require a transition toward cleaner energy. Besides crop burning, the other major source of air pollution across India and Pakistan is fossil fuel combustion, whether that’s coal in furnaces, gas in factories, or diesel in trucks. These fuels also contribute to climate change, which is already contributing to devastating heat waves and flooding from torrential monsoons in the region. Both countries have made major investments in renewable energy, but they are also poised to burn more coal to feed their growing economies.

At the COP29 climate change conference this week in Baku, Azerbaijan, India is asking wealthier nations to contribute more money to finance clean energy within its borders and to share technologies that will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance air quality.

Solving the air pollution crisis in India and Pakistan will take years, and it’s likely to get worse before it gets better. But there are lifesaving measures both countries can take now.

The world’s 100 worst polluted cities are in Asia — and 83 of them are in just one country

Helen Regan, CNN
Fri, April 26, 2024 



All but one of the 100 cities with the world’s worst air pollution last year were in Asia, according to a new report, with the climate crisis playing a pivotal role in bad air quality that is risking the health of billions of people worldwide.

The vast majority of these cities — 83 — were in India and all exceeded the World Health Organization’s air quality guidelines by more than 10 times, according to the report by IQAir, which tracks air quality worldwide.

The study looked specifically at fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, which is the tiniest pollutant but also the most dangerous. Only 9% of more than 7,800 cities analyzed globally recorded air quality that met WHO’s standard, which says average annual levels of PM2.5 should not exceed 5 micrograms per cubic meter.


“We see that in every part of our lives that air pollution has an impact,” said IQAir Global CEO Frank Hammes. “And it typically, in some of the most polluted countries, is likely shaving off anywhere between three to six years of people’s lives. And then before that will lead to many years of suffering that are entirely preventable if there’s better air quality.”

When inhaled, PM2.5 travels deep into lung tissue where it can enter the bloodstream. It comes from sources like the combustion of fossil fuels, dust storms and wildfires, and has been linked to asthma, heart and lung disease, cancer, and other respiratory illnesses, as well as cognitive impairment in children.

Begusarai, a city of half a million people in northern India’s Bihar state, was the world’s most polluted city last year with an average annual PM2.5 concentration of 118.9 — 23 times the WHO guidelines. It was followed in the IQAir rankings by the Indian cities of Guwahati, Assam; Delhi; and Mullanpur, Punjab.

Across India, 1.3 billion people, or 96% of the population, live with air quality seven times higher than WHO guidelines, according to the report.

Central and South Asia were the worst performing regions globally, home to all four of the most polluted countries last year: Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Tajikistan.

South Asia is of particular concern, with 29 of the 30 most polluted cities in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh. The report ranked the major population centers of Lahore in 5th, New Delhi in 6th and Dhaka in 24th place.

Hammes said no significant improvement in pollution levels in the region is likely without “major changes in terms of the energy infrastructure and agricultural practices.”

“What’s also worrisome in many parts of the world is that the things that are causing outdoor air pollution are also sometimes the things that are causing indoor air pollution,” he added. “So cooking with dirty fuel will create indoor exposures that could be many times what you’re seeing outdoors.”
A global problem

IQAir found that 92.5% of the 7,812 locations in 134 countries, regions, and territories where it analyzed average air quality last year exceeded WHO’s PM2.5 guidelines.

Only 10 countries and territories had “healthy” air quality: Finland, Estonia, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, Bermuda, Grenada, Iceland, Mauritius and French Polynesia.

Millions of people die each year from air pollution-related health issues. Air pollution from fossil fuels is killing 5.1 million people worldwide every year, according to a study published in the BMJ in November. Meanwhile, WHO says 6.7 million people die annually from the combined effects of ambient and household air pollution.

The human-caused climate crisis, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, plays a “pivotal” role in influencing air pollution levels, the IQAir report said.

The climate crisis is altering weather patterns, leading to changes in wind and rainfall, which affects the dispersion of pollutants. Climate change will only make pollution worse as extreme heat becomes more severe and frequent, it said.

The climate crisis is also leading to more severe wildfires in many regions and longer and more intense pollen seasons, both of which exacerbate health issues linked to air pollution.

“We have such a strong overlap of what’s causing our climate crisis and what’s causing air pollution,” Hammes said. “Anything that we can do to reduce air pollution will be tremendously impactful in the long term also for improving our climate gas emissions, and vice versa.”
Regional rankings

North America was badly affected by wildfires that raged in Canada from May to October last year. In May, the monthly average of air pollution in Alberta was nine times greater than the same month in 2022, the report found.

And for the first time, Canada surpassed the United States in the regional pollution rankings.

The wildfires also affected US cities such as Minneapolis and Detroit, where annual pollution averages rose by 30% to 50% compared to the previous year. The most polluted major US city in 2023 was Columbus, Ohio for the second year running. But major cities like Portland, Seattle and Los Angeles experienced significant drops in annual average pollution levels, the report said.

In Asia, however, pollution levels rebounded across much of the region.

China reversed a five-year trend of declining levels of pollution, the report found. Chinese cities used to dominate global rankings of the world’s worst air quality but a raft of clean air policies over the past decade has transformed things for the better.

A study last year had found the campaign meant the average Chinese citizen’s lifespan is now 2.2 years longer. But thick smog returned to Beijing last year, where citizens experienced a 14% increase in the annual average PM2.5 concentration, according to the IQAir report. China’s most polluted city, Hotan, was listed at 14 in the IQAir ranking.

In Southeast Asia, only the Philippines saw a drop in annual pollution levels compared to the previous year, the report found.

Indonesia was the most polluted country in the region, with a 20% increase compared to 2022. Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand all had cities that exceeded WHO PM2.5 guidelines by more than 10 times, according to the report.

Last month, Thai authorities ordered government employees to work from home due to unhealthy levels of pollution in the capital Bangkok and surrounding areas, according to Reuters. On Friday, tourism hot spot Chiang Mai was the world’s most polluted city as toxic smog brought by seasonal agricultural burning blanketed the northern city.
Inequality… and one bright spot

The report also highlighted a worrying inequality: the lack of monitoring stations in countries in Africa, South America and the Middle East, which results in a dearth of air quality data in those regions.

Although Africa saw an improvement in the number of countries included in this year’s report compared with previous years the continent largely remains the most underrepresented. According to IQAir, only 24 of 54 African countries had sufficient data available from their monitoring stations.

Seven African countries were among the new locations included in the 2023 rankings, including Burkina Faso, the world’s fifth most polluted country, and Rwanda, in 15th.

Several countries that ranked high on the most polluted list last year were not included for 2023 due to a lack of available data. They include Chad, which was the most polluted country in 2022.

“There is so much hidden air pollution still on the planet,” said Hammes.

One bright spot is increasing pressure and civic engagement from communities, NGOs, companies, and scientists to monitor air quality.

“Ultimately that’s great because it really shows governments that people do care,” Hammes said.





20 Most Air Polluted Cities in Asia
Meerub Anjum
Fri, April 26, 2024



In this article, we will look into the 20 most air polluted cities in Asia. If you want to skip our detailed analysis, you can go directly to the 5 Most Air Polluted Cities in Asia.
Air Pollution in Asia

99 out of the 100 most air polluted cities in the world are from Asia. The UNEP reports that nearly 6.5 million people die due to poor air quality every year, out of which 70% of the deaths occur in Asia and the Pacific. According to the 2023 Air Quality Life Index report, countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and India account for more than 50% of the life years lost due to air pollution. South Asia is the most polluted subregion in Asia, where the average lifespan declined by 5.1 years. Bangladesh is the most air polluted country in Asia. Life expectancy declined by 6.8 years in Bangladesh, as of 2023.

In 2023, Asia dominated the countries with the worst air pollution in the world. According to the 2023 World Air Quality Report, East Asia showed a diverse outlook, with some countries experiencing an increase in PM2.5 concentration in 2023 while others facing a decline. Countries such as Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and Hong Kong SAR surpassed the WHO's target 2 of 15 μg/m³. Mongolia continued its downward trend in PM2.5 concentration and recorded a 25% decrease in its PM2.5 concentration. Hotan, China stands out as the most air polluted city in 2023, with an annual average particulate matter concentration of more than 87 µg/m3. Whereas, Ibigawa, Japan is the least polluted city in the region, as of 2023.

The air quality in Southeast Asia deteriorated, due to many countries in the region experiencing a rise in PM2.5 concentration. Indonesia appeared as the most air polluted country in the subregion. While Phillippines saw improvement in air quality in 2023, recording a 10% drop in its particulate matter concentration. Cambodia's air quality worsened, with its PM2.5 concentration tripling in 2023. The top 4 countries with the worst air pollution in the world in 2023 are from Central and South Asia. The region also has the most number of air polluted cities, with the top 10 most air polluted cities from India and Pakistan. 31% of the region's cities had 10 times higher particulate matter concertation, compared to the WHO limit.
Green Tech and Clean Energy Solutions for India's Air Pollution Crisis

The third most air polluted country in Asia, India, has the most number of cities out of the 100 air polluted cities in the world in 2023. The country's annual PM 2.5 concentration increased to 54.4 μg/m³ in 2023. Delhi, the National Capital Territory of India, witnessed a 10% increase in its PM 2.5 concentration, with a peak monthly average of 255 μg/m³. 66% of the country's cities report annual averages higher than 35 μg/m³.

A startup in India, called Takachar, is working towards reducing the air pollution associated with stubble and crop residue burning. It develops small-scale and portable equipment that converts crop residue into bio-products, such as fertilizers, fuel, or activated carbons. Takachar claims that up to 100 million tons of carbon dioxide can be reduced every year, by providing price-competitive renewable biobased active carbon, as an alternative to fossil-based activated carbon. Stubble burning is one of the major causes of smog and air pollution in the country, especially in rural areas. The company provides processing of a diverse variety of crop and forest residues and converts them into bioproducts with a wide range of agricultural applications

Another major reason for air pollution is the emissions and PM2.5 released from the burning of fossil fuels for conventional energy production. Many corporations in India are providing clean energy solutions. Some of the prominent names in the market include Adani Green Energy Ltd (NSE:ADANIGREEN) and Suzlon Energy Ltd (NSE:SUZLON). Let's discuss them below in detail.

Adani Green Energy Ltd (NSE:ADANIGREEN) is a leading renewable energy company in India. It develops and operates utility-scale grid-connected wind, solar, and hybrid renewable energy power generation plants. On April 3, the company announced that it has become the first corporation in India to have surpassed 10,000 MW of operational capacity. Its portfolio consists of 1,401 MW wind, 7,393 MW solar, and 2,140 hybrid capacity. The total operational portfolio of Adani Green Energy Ltd (NSE:ADANIGREEN) will be able to provide energy to over 5.8 million homes and avoid nearly 21 megatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

Suzlon Energy Ltd (NSE:SUZLON) is another major name in the renewable energy market in India. The company has a wind energy capacity of nearly 20.5 GW across 17 countries, with 14.5 GW of wind energy assets in India. On March 7, the company announced that it has won an order for developing a 72.45 MW wind power project for a Delhi-based independent renewable energy provider, Juniper Green Energy Private Limited. Suzlon Energy Ltd (NSE:SUZLON) will deploy 23 wind turbine generators with a hybrid lattice tubular (HLT) tower, along with a rated capacity of 3.15 MW each at Juniper's site in Dwarka district, Gujrat.

Air pollution continues to affect millions of lives globally. Green technology initiatives are emerging as a strategic path to reduce GHG emissions and control air pollution. With this context, let's have a look at the 20 most air polluted cities in Asia. You can also look at

20 Most Air Polluted Cities in Asia

Kekyalyaynen / Shutterstock.com

Methodology

To compile our list of the 20 most air polluted cities in Asia, we consulted the IQ Air's Air Quality Index (AQI) live ranking. We have ranked the cities in ascending order of their Air Quality Index, as of April 22. We have also mentioned the PM2.5 and other pollutant concentrations of the cities, where available. For cities with the same AQI, we have used their PM2.5 concentration to break the tie.
20 Most Air Polluted Cities in Asia
20. Shanghai, China

Live Air Quality Index (2024): 83

Shanghai is ranked among the 20 most air polluted cities in Asia. As of April 22, the city has an AQI index of 83. The PM2.5 concentration in the city is 27.5 μg/m³.
19. Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Live Air Quality Index (April 20, 2024): 84

Dubai ranks 19th on our list. The major air pollutant in the city is PM10. Its PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations are 29 μg/m³ and 132.9 μg/m³, respectively.
18. Yangon, Myanmar

Live Air Quality Index (2024): 86

Yangon is one of the most air polluted cities in Asia. The city has a particulate matter concentration of 35.9 μg/m³, which is 7.9 times higher than the WHO standard.
17. Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Live Air Quality Index (2024): 88

Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan. As of April 22, the city has an air quality index of 88. Its PM2.5 concentration is 29 μg/m³. It is ranked 17th on our list.
16. Karachi, Pakistan

Live Air Quality Index (2024): 94

Karachi is the largest city in Pakistan. The city has an air quality index of 94, as of April 22. The PM2.5 concentration in Karachi is 29.5 μg/m³, which is 5.9 times higher than the air quality standards set by the WHO.
15. Kolkata, India

Live Air Quality Index (2024): 95

Kolkata is one of the most air polluted cities in Asia. The city has a PM2.5 concentration of 33 μg/m³ and an AQI of 95, as of April 22.
14. Astana, Kazakhstan

Live Air Quality Index (2024): 99

The capital of Kazakhstan, Astana is ranked 14th on our list. It has a particulate matter concentration of 33 μg/m³. Its air quality index is 99, as of April 22.
13. Kuwait City, Kuwait

Live Air Quality Index (2024): 102

Kuwait City is ranked 13th on our list of the most air polluted cities in Asia. The PM2.5 concentration in the city is 36 μg/m³, which is over 7 times higher than the WHO PM2.5 guideline.
12. Manama, Bahrain

Live Air Quality Index (2024): 102

Manama is the capital and one of the largest cities in Bahrain. As of April 22, the city has an AQI index of 102 and a PM2.5 concentration of 36 μg/m³. It is ranked 12th on our list.
11. Bangkok, Thailand

Live Air Quality Index (2024): 104

Bangkok ranks among the most polluted cities for air quality in Asia. As of April 22, the city has an AQI of 104. Its PM2.5 concentration is 34 μg/m³, which is 6.8 times higher than the WHO standard of 5 μg/m³ PM2.5 in the air.
10. Chengdu, China

Live Air Quality Index (2024): 107

Chengdu is ranked 10th on our list. The city has a PM2.5 concentration of 38 μg/m³ and a PM10 concentration of 73 μg/m³.
9. Doha, Qatar

Live Air Quality Index (2024): 112

Doha is the capital of Qatar. As of April 22, the city has an air quality index of 112. Its PM2.5 concentration is 50 μg/m³. It is one of the most air polluted cities in Asia.
8. Medan, Indonesia

Live Air Quality Index (2024): 114

Medan is the capital of North Sumatra, Indonesia. It has a PM2.5 concentration of 41 μg/m³, which is over 8 times higher than the air quality standards.
7. Dhaka, Bangladesh

Live Air Quality Index (2024): 118

Dhaka is ranked 7th on our list. As of April 22, the city has an air quality index of 118. Its particulate matter concentration is 46.7 μg/m³.
6. Delhi, India

Live Air Quality Index (2024): 134

Delhi is ranked 6th on our list of the most air polluted cities in Asia. The major air pollutant in the city is PM10. The concentration of PM2.5 and PM10 in Delhi is 43 μg/m³ and 210 μg/m³, respectively.

Where has the dirtiest air in the US? Report ranks cities with best and worst air quality.

Eduardo Cuevas and Krystal Nurse, USA TODAY
Sat, April 27, 2024 



A new report revealed concerning findings about America's air, but some cities are doing better than others.

As part of the report, the American Lung Association ranked the 10 best and worst metropolitan areas for air pollution. While the best cities are scattered all over the U.S., the West Coast saw some of the worst rankings.

The report looked at daily and annual fine particulate matter averages and ozone pollution regulated under the Clear Air Act. Nearly 2 in 5 Americans live in areas that had a failing grade for at least one air pollution measure, the report stated.

Read more: Report says U.S. air pollution worst in 25 years as new environmental regulations finalized

“We're seeing the most days and the ‘very unhealthy’ or ‘hazardous’ air quality level due to spikes in particle pollution,” Paul Billings, ALA’s senior vice president of public policy, told USA TODAY.
'No safe level to particle pollution'

The below rankings focus on fine particulate matter, or PM 2.5, which created when things are burned. It can cause asthma attacks, strokes and a litany of long term health problems.

“There is no safe level to particle pollution,” Dr. Kari Nadeau, the John Rock professor of climate and population studies at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told USA TODAY. “We were not meant to breathe this in as humans.”

The pollutants increase the risk of cardiovascular problems such as heart failure and arrhythmia, as well as respiratory ailments such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Breathing in high levels of particulate matter in the long term has been linked to brain damage that puts people at higher risk of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias.
Top ten US metro areas with worst air pollution: West Coast air gets bad marks

The western U.S. experienced the bulk of its pollution from roadways, agriculture, oil and gas industries and seemingly endless wildfires.

Bakersfield, Fresno and Visalia – hubs for agricultural production, shipping and warehouses where the population is predominantly Latino – make up the top five cities in each of the report’s measures for 24-hour particle pollution, year-round particle pollution and ground-level ozone pollution.

Other metro areas included are: Eugene-Springfield, Oregon; Los Angeles-Long Beach; Sacramento-Roseville; Medford-Grants Pass, Oregon; Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona; and Fairbanks, Alaska.

Dangerous smoke: Where is wildfire smoke and air quality at its worst? Here's a map of the entire US.
Top ten US metro areas with least air pollution: Residents skew white

Some of the communities with the best air quality included Bangor, Maine; Wilmington, North Carolina; and Honolulu. Except for Honolulu, most of the cities with the best air quality were majority white.

Areas with the least amount of particulate matter pollution include: Casper, Wyoming, Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina, Hawaii; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Duluth, Minnesota-Wisconsin; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Anchorage, Alaska; and St. George, Utah.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Best and worst air in the US: Report ranks pollution in cities, metros

Doctors say breathing toxic air in Delhi is like smoking 10 cigarettes a day and urgent solutions are needed

By Charmaine Manuel

abc.net.au

1/1/2022

During December, Delhi's daily PM2.5 levels were, on average, nearly 14 times higher than the World Health Organization recommends.

(Reuters: Adnan Abidi)

Months after the Delta variant ravaged India's capital, Delhi, the city's residents are taking refuge indoors once more.

Key points:

Air pollution is a health concern for children and adults in Delhi

Experts say breathing toxic air is equivalent to smoking multiple cigarettes a day

Clean air activists say urgent solutions are needed


But this time, they aren't just shielding themselves from a dangerous virus. They're also protecting themselves from the city's toxic air.

Schools, construction sites and some workplaces were closed briefly in November due to heavy air pollution and the country's chief justice has asked the central government to take urgent action on the "very serious" problem in Delhi.

Delhi's air quality has been steadily deteriorating for years, and it is particularly bad during winter when the cool weather traps pollution and smoke, shrouding the city in a thick layer of smog.

This seasonal phenomenon has huge health costs for Delhi's residents, many of whom are now agitating for change.
No one knows what 'real blue skies' and 'real clean air' feels like

Jyoti Pande Lavakare has personally experienced the human cost of Delhi's air pollution crisis.

In 2017, her mother, Kamala, died from lung cancer which, she said, doctors told her was triggered by air pollution.

Jyoti Pande Lavakare's mother, Kamala, died from lung cancer in 2017. (Supplied)

"She got diagnosed and, in three months, she had passed on and that was a very traumatic time," she said.

Ms Lavakare, a clean-air activist and author, always knew that Delhi suffered from poor air quality, but it was only when she returned from years of living in California that she realised just how bad it was.

"I realised that people who were born and raised in India didn't really know what real blue skies looked like and what real clean air smelled and felt like," she said.

Worried about the impact on her young children, Ms Lavakare, a former journalist, threw herself into researching the health consequences of living in a polluted city.

Concerned by what she learned, she founded a not-for-profit called Care for Air to raise awareness of the health impacts of Delhi's dismal air, activism that became more personal after her mother's death.

"Although I knew myself about air pollution, it was all intellectualised in my head," she said.

"But to see her struggle to breathe and to die in that horrific way was something I felt in my heart."

Farmers in India traditionally burn their fields to improve soil fertility. 

(Reuters: Danish Siddiqui)

Why is Delhi's air quality so bad?

There are multiple contributing factors.

Siddharth Singh, an air pollution researcher and the author of The Great Smog of India, noted that while air pollution is a common problem in cities around the world, the kind of pollution seen in Delhi is "unique to India".

Delhi's air quality worsens when farmers in the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana burn their fields in the winter months after the harvest to prepare for the next agricultural cycle.

Siddharth Singh says there are several factors that contribute to India's "unique" air pollution. (Supplied)

Mr Singh explained that changing wind directions and slower wind speeds in winter mean that smoke gets trapped instead of being blown towards the sea.

Another factor was pollution emitted from road vehicles and a dependence on coal to generate electricity — India relies heavily on coal because it's readily available and cheap, Mr Singh said.

Northern India also has thousands of small-scale brick manufacturing businesses — which use fire, coal and simple chimneys — that release emissions and dust into the atmosphere and are a "major contributor to the problem", Mr Singh added.

On top of this, the burning of garbage and biomass such as leaves combine to create a "cocktail of air pollutants", Mr Singh said.
Toxic air means no one is a 'true non-smoker' in Delhi

India's government is changing the way it manages pollution by moving to an "airshed" approach.(Reuters: Adnan Abidi)

Breathing in the toxic air of New Delhi has dire consequences for the city's inhabitants.

It can lead to lower life expectancy and an increased chance of lung cancer, among other illnesses, according to professor and medical doctor Arvind Kumar.

As a chest surgeon at Medanta Hospital in Gurugram — a satellite city of Delhi — and founding trustee of the Lung Care Foundation, Dr Kumar has noticed a significant change in the profile of his patients over the past 30 years.

In 1988, 90 per cent of his patients were cigarette smokers and they were mostly men in their 50s and 60s, he said.

But, by 2018, 50 per cent of his lung cancer patients were non-smokers and from a younger demographic: Most were in their 40s, with some in their 30s and a few in their late 20s.

"When I used to operate on patients, I used to see black deposits on the lungs of known smokers. But, when I used to operate on patients for other chest diseases, in non-smokers, it was a rarity to see black lungs," he said.

These days, when he operated on people, finding a normal pink lung was "a rarity", he said.

Dr Arvind Kumar has witnessed a change in the profile of his patients over the past 30 years. (Supplied)

In a city as polluted as Delhi, "there is no true non-smoker", Dr Kumar added.

This is due to the tiny particulate matter known as PM2.5 (with a diameter of 2.5 micrometres or less), air pollution that is so small it can be inhaled into the lungs and enter the bloodstream.

"So, if today the level of PM2.5 is 220 — which is equal to 10 cigarettes — every newborn today will be smoking 10 cigarettes on day one of his or her life," he said.

Over December 2021, Delhi's daily levels of PM2.5 averaged around 205 micrograms per cubic metre, nearly 14 times higher than the threshold prescribed by the World Health Organization's air quality guidelines.

Ms Lavakare was particularly concerned about the impact on Delhi's children, saying the air is so polluted that "every newborn is a smoker from the day they're born".

"You're setting up your young and your youth for failure," she said.

A boom in air purifiers and oxygen bars

People are paying to breathe in fresh oxygen at oxygen bars in Delhi.

 (Reuters: Anushree Fadnavis)

One of the offshoots of the air pollution crisis is the rise in products and businesses catering to the need for clean, fresh air.

"Air purifiers are a booming industry today," Dr Kumar said.

Cities like Delhi have also seen a rise in oxygen bars, where customers can pay to breathe in pure oxygen.

At one oxygen bar in Delhi, customers can pay 700–1300 rupees ($13–$24) to breathe in flavoured oxygen for around 15 minutes.

Dr Kumar described these ventures as "opportunistic industries" that are trying to "cash in on this health crisis".

Mr Singh noted that, while wealthier residents have the option of staying indoors or purchasing air purifiers, lower socio-economic groups are more exposed to air pollution.

"The poor tend to work closer to the roads. They tend to work closer to the brick-manufacturing units. They tend to work at construction sites, so their exposure to pollution is obviously much, much higher," he said.
Solutions to avoid 'a dystopian future'

In response to the country's air pollution problem, India's central government launched the National Clean Air Program (NCAP) in 2019.

The NCAP targets air pollution in around 132 cities in India and aims to reduce pollution concentrations by 2024.

Mr Singh was not optimistic about NCAP's success because air pollution "is not just an urban problem".

Some experts say "smog towers", which are basically 20-metre-tall air purifiers, are ineffective.

(Reuters: Adnan Abidi)

The ABC contacted the Environment Minister in the Delhi government, Gopal Rai, as well as pollution control entities at the state and central government level but did not receive a response.

What was needed, Mr Singh said, was "a shift from an urban approach to an airshed approach".

An airshed, he explained, was a region with "common geographical and meteorological traits that make air pollution in that region very similar".

India's Environment Minister, Bhupender Yadav, recently announced the government would revise its approach to air pollution and would focus on airsheds instead of urban centres.

The Delhi government has also attempted to tackle air pollution in the city by building smog towers, which are designed to purify the air around them.

Both Dr Kumar and Ms Lavakare consider this solution to be ineffectual and a waste of money.

Dr Kumar said air pollution could not be solved by allowing the air to be polluted and then cleaning it.

It was the sources of pollution that needed to be controlled, he stressed.

But there was also the question of political will.

Air pollution was "not a major electoral issue", Mr Singh said, because there were more-pressing developmental challenges such as "poverty, economic growth, jobs, inflation" along with other political and cultural issues.

Jyoti Pande Lavakare became a clean-air activist and is worried about the impact of air pollution on her family. (Supplied)

Air pollution is the second crisis Delhi's residents have lived through in 2021 after the pandemic.

However, Ms Lavakare said that its government was not taking air pollution as seriously as COVID-19 and that it had fallen to civil society groups such as hers to do the government's job in spreading awareness.

"It's really a dystopian future unless the government gets its act together," she said.

Poor air inflicts billions of premature deaths in Asia

October 22nd, 2020, by Nivedita Khandekar

Traffic jam in Beijing: But China has made big strides towards air quality improvement. 

Image: By public domain, via Wikipedia Commons

Air pollution by tiny particles is among the world’s worst health risks. In South Asia, poor air is as bad as it gets.

NEW DELHI, 22 October, 2020 − Poor air costs lives, but finding out just how many of them will come as a shock to many residents of South Asia’s big cities.

In India’s capital, New Delhi, just going outside and breathing the air can shorten your life by more than nine years, according to a new report into the region’s air quality that measures the effects of pollution on life expectancy.

For millions of people across across north-west India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, it will be bad news − despite the Covid crisis − because of the current surge in air pollution in the region.

But none of the people of four countries, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, will be happy with the prediction that their lives will be shortened unless their governments take air pollution seriously.

New Delhi is the worst single example in the four, but few of their citizens − a quarter of the world’s population − will escape.

Bangladesh worst hit

Averaged across the whole population, the people of Bangladesh suffer most from air pollution in any country, with their average life span cut short by 6.2 years.

An air quality index (AQI) provides daily air quality assessments, but not the actual health risk. An air quality life index (AQLI) goes further: it converts particulate air pollution into perhaps the most important air pollution metric that exists: its impact on life expectancy.

The report is the work of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), which has recently updated its AQLI, based on research by its director Michael Greenstone that quantified the causal relationship between human exposure to air pollution and reduced life expectancy.

While the report makes grim reading for nations south of the Himalayas, it does offer some hope, saying that the people of China can see marked improvements since their government began clamping down on polluting industries in 2013.

The report uses two measures to calculate lower expectations of life expectancy: the more stringent World Heath Organisation guidelines (WHO) and the limits imposed by the governments concerned.

“The threat of coronavirus is grave and deserves every bit of the attention it is receiving [but] embracing the seriousness of air pollution with a similar vigour would allow billions of people around the world to lead longer and healthier lives”

It says air pollution shortens Indian average life expectancy by 5.2 years, relative to what it would be if the WHO guidelines were met, but by 2.3 years relative to the rate if pollution were reduced to meet the country’s own national standard.

Some areas of India fare much worse than the average, with air pollution shortening lives by 9.4 years in Delhi and 8.6 years in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, the report’s India fact sheet 2020 says.

Similarly, the Pakistan sheet says the average Pakistani’s life expectancy has been shortened by 2.7 years, while air pollution cuts lives by more than 4 years in the most polluted areas.

Naming Bangladesh as the world’s most polluted country, EPIC’s report says air pollution shortens the average citizen’s life expectancy by 6.2 years, compared to what it would be if the WHO guidelines were met.

Again, some areas suffer far more, with lives cut by about 7 years in the most polluted district. In every one of the country’s 64 districts, particulate pollution levels are at least four times the WHO guidelines.

Possible underestimate

Surprisingly Nepal, which unlike its southern neighbours is not normally associated with air pollution, also had serious problems with its crowded and polluted cities. As a result, life expectancy there is cut by 4.7 years across the whole population.

“Though the threat of coronavirus is grave and deserves every bit of the attention it is receiving − perhaps more in some places − embracing the seriousness of air pollution with a similar vigour would allow billions of people around the world to lead longer and healthier lives,” says Professor Greenstone.

The science of air pollution, and the impact of poor air on the human body, is evolving rapidly, and some Asian scientists have expressed reservations about the accuracy of some of the calculations. However, none of them disputes the fact that millions are dying early because of the pollution.

The report concentrates on the effect of the smaller particulates that are known to do the most damage to lungs, and to enter the bloodstream, and it may in fact be underestimating the overall effects of poor air quality. − Climate News Network

* * * * * *

Nivedita Khandekar is an independent journalist based in New Delhi, covering development and the environment: nivedita_him@rediffmail.com and on twitter at @nivedita_Him

 

The Lancet Planetary Health: Meeting India's air quality targets across south Asia may prevent 7% of pregnancy losses, modelling study estimates

Modelling study suggests that pregnant women in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, who are exposed to poor air quality, may be at higher risk of stillbirths and miscarriages

THE LANCET

Research News

 

• Modelling study suggests that pregnant women in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, who are exposed to poor air quality, may be at higher risk of stillbirths and miscarriages.
• An estimated 349,681 pregnancy losses per year in south Asia were associated with exposure to PM2.5 concentrations that exceeded India's air quality standard (more than 40 μg/m³), accounting for 7% of annual pregnancy loss in the region from 2000-2016.
• First study to estimate the effect of air pollution on pregnancy loss across the region indicates that air pollution could be a major contributor to pregnancy loss in south Asia, so controlling air pollution is vital for improving maternal health.
• However, limitations in the survey data mean the study was unable to distinguish between natural pregnancy loss and abortions, which may have led to an underestimation of the effect of air pollution on natural pregnancy loss.

Poor air quality is associated with a considerable proportion of pregnancy loss in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, according to a modelling study published in The Lancet Planetary Health journal.

Previous studies have suggested a link between air pollution and pregnancy loss in other regions, but this is the first study to quantify the burden in south Asia, which is the most populous region in the world and has the highest rate of pregnancy loss. [1,2,3] Therefore, understanding the risk factors for pregnancy loss in south Asia is crucial to improving maternal health regionally and globally.

Lead author on the study, Dr. Tao Xue, Peking University, China, says, "South Asia has the highest burden of pregnancy loss globally and is one of the most PM2.5 polluted regions in the world. Our findings suggest that poor air quality could be responsible for a considerable burden of pregnancy loss in the region, providing further justification for urgent action to tackle dangerous levels of pollution." [1]

One of the co-authors, Dr. Tianjia Guan, is from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China. She says "We know losing a pregnancy can have knock-on mental, physical and economic effects on women, including increased risk of postnatal depressive disorders, infant mortality during subsequent pregnancy, and increase the costs related to pregnancy, such as loss of labour. Therefore, reducing pregnancy loss may also lead to knock-on improvements in gender equality." [1]

To carry out their analysis, the authors combined data from household surveys on health from 1998-2016 (from women who reported at least one pregnancy loss and one or more livebirths) and estimated exposure to PM2.5 during pregnancy through combining satellite with atmospheric modelling outputs. They created a model to examine how exposure to PM2.5 increased women's risk of pregnancy loss, calculating risk for each 10 μg/m³ increased in PM2.5 after adjusting for maternal age, temperature and humidity, seasonal variation, and long-term trends in pregnancy loss.

Using this association, they calculated the number of pregnancy losses that may have been caused by PM2.5 in the whole region for the period 2000-16 and looked at how many pregnancy losses might have been prevented under India's and WHO's air quality standard (40 μg/m³ and 10 μg/m³, respectively).

In the study, they included 34,197 women who had lost a pregnancy, including 27,480 miscarriages and 6,717 stillbirths, which were compared to livebirth controls. Of the pregnancy loss cases, 77% were from India, 12% from Pakistan, and 11% from Bangladesh.

Gestational exposure to PM2.5 was associated with an increased likelihood of pregnancy loss, and this remained significant after adjusting for other factors. Each increase in 10 μg/m³ was estimated to increase a mother's risk of pregnancy loss by 3%.

The increase in risk was greater for mothers from rural areas or those who became pregnant at an older age, compared to younger mothers from urban areas.

From 2000 to 2016, 349,681 pregnancy losses per year were associated with ambient exposure to air pollution exceeding India's air quality standard-- accounting for 7% of the total annual pregnancy loss burden in this region. For air pollution above WHO air quality guideline, exposure may have contributed to 29% of pregnancy losses. [4]

Although WHO's guidelines aims for a safer level of air pollution, the authors note that India's standard is a more realistic target level, given the high average levels of air pollution in the region and the need to balance practical governance and public health.

Pregnancy loss associated with air pollution was more common in the Northern plains region in India and Pakistan. Although the total burden of pregnancy loss was predominantly borne by rural women aged under 30 years old in recent years, the burden attributable to PM2.5 also affected older mothers (aged 30 years or over) in rural areas because of their high susceptibility to the adverse effects of PM2.5.

The authors note several limitations of their study. In the surveys, they were not able to distinguish between natural pregnancy loss and abortions and there was under-reporting of pregnancy losses because of stigma or ignoring very early pregnancy losses. They also note that the survey data is subject to recall bias, therefore, recommending the causality of the association should be further examined in longitudinal studies. In addition, satellite-based estimates of PM2.5 were used, this was necessary because insufficient local monitoring is available.

###

NOTES TO EDITORS

This study was funded by Chinese Natural Science Foundation and Ministry of Science and Technology of China. It was conducted by researchers from Peking University, China, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, China, Tsinghua University, China, University of Connecticut, USA.

The labels have been added to this press release as part of a project run by the Academy of Medical Sciences seeking to improve the communication of evidence. For more information, please see: http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/AMS-press-release-labelling-system-GUIDANCE.pdf if you have any questions or feedback, please contact The Lancet press office pressoffice@lancet.com

[1] Quote direct from author and cannot be found in the text of the Article.

[2] Association between pregnancy loss and ambient PM2·5 using survey data in Africa: a longitudinal case-control study, 1998-2016: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(19)30047-6/fulltext

[3] During 2010-15, 178 million (25·5%) of 698 million babies born globally were born in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh combined, but 917 800 (35·0%) of 2 620 000 stillbirths occurred in these countries.

[4] For the WHO guideline scenario, the authors only calculated the percentage of pregnancy losses associated with PM2.5, so unlike for the India's air standard scenario, the total number of pregnancy losses is not available.

Peer-reviewed / Mo

The Scapegoating of Peasants for the Pollution Crisis

Bodapati Srujana

 December 1, 2025

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Photo by Ronak Naik

It is that time of year again when India’s national capital Delhi’s air quality turned acutely hazardous. Official Indian air quality indicators hit their maximum adverse readings of 500, while indices based on international norms shoot past 1,000 or even 2,000 —a level that effectively turned the city into a gas chamber. The thick smog, loaded with toxic gases, seeps into every corner of the city, including inside people’s homes, with residents having nowhere safe to go.

Winter, not just in Delhi, but across the Indo-Gangetic plains, which house nearly half the country’s population, has become increasingly toxic in the past decade and more. While emissions from vehicles are a major contribution to the hazardous air, firewood use in rural households for cooking and heating, paddy-stubble burning after the Kharif harvest (October–November), and industrial pollution, smoke from brick kilns, open incineration of garbage, together produce huge quantity of pollutants that remained trapped above the ground for prolonged periods in winters.

The winter conditions on the northern plains —low temperatures, high atmospheric moisture, weak winds, and the Himalayan barrier— create a stable inversion layer that prevents the dispersion of pollutants. The result is a persistent blanket of smog over cities and towns of the region, broken only by occasional days of showers in January that provide relief for very brief periods.

While toxic air in winters is far more geographically pervasive, covering multiple states of northern India, the pollution in Delhi attracts much attention, due to it being the seat of the country’s political, administrative, judicial and media elite —whose privileged spaces are not spared of the toxic air. In fact, winter pollution in some of these smaller cities and towns is worse than in Delhi, but their plight rarely registers in the media.

The hazardous winter pollution has created a serious health crisis, with rise in respiratory illnesses, higher rates of hypertension and cancer, cognitive decline in children, greater disease burden overall, and increased mortality among both the elderly and infants. Its impact is most severe on the bottom 90 percent of the population, who face an underfunded public health system, cannot afford or access adequate care, and for whom illness means lost wages and costly medical visits and tests that push them even further into poverty.

Identifying the core causes of pollution and addressing the health crisis, without placing the cost of prevention on the most vulnerable —the working class and the peasantry— is an urgent task for the Indian government

But the Indian government, instead of formulating a comprehensive plan to tackle the pollution crisis, has shifted the blame onto farmers in Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh —treating post-harvest stubble burning as the primary cause of Delhi’s toxic air and pushing states to impose heavy fines on cultivators, ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 30,000.

Increasing Automobiles – The Main Culprit

In reality, the biggest driver of Delhi’s pollution is the rising ownership and use of automobiles. Studies estimate that more than half of the city’s air pollution comes from vehicular emissions. This is hardly surprising, given that Delhi has more cars than the next three biggest Indian cities—Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai —combined, and 90 percent of them are private vehicles.

It’s not just Delhi. Rising car ownership among the top decile has made road congestion and heavy pollution routine even in semi-urban areas in India, that once had relatively clean air.

Car ownership and road transportation have been placed at the centre of India’s neoliberal growth model. With the push toward privatisation, successive governments have deliberately weakened the less-polluting public transportation system, including the railways. State-owned Indian Railways has been left with ageing, overstretched infrastructure: its share of freight transportation has collapsed from around 60 percent in 1991 to about 29 percent today, and its passenger share has fallen in parallel

As rail capacity stagnated, road transportation —especially the use of personal and commercial vehicles— was allowed to expand unchecked. The automobile sector now accounts for roughly half of manufacturing value added. It has been propped up by the rapid expansion of the road network, even as public road transport has been left to decay: state road transport undertakings, which provide mass public transit, have been chronically neglected. While the number of cars, jeeps, and taxis has grown at a compound annual rate of 8.56 percent, the number of buses —the mainstay of public road transport— has increased by only 2.48 percent.

Over the past few decades, the Union government has poured a disproportionate share of its capital expenditure into road construction, to encourage an automobile-centric economy. India now has one of the largest road networks in the world —out of sync with its geography and population density— and it continues to expand rapidly while the railway system stagnates. India’s total road length even exceeds China’s, despite China having a comparable population, three times the land area, and a far larger economy. By contrast, India’s railway route length has stagnated: the two countries had roughly the same route length around 2010, but India’s has grown by only about 6 percent in the two decades since, while China’s has expanded by roughly 65 percent over the same period and is now about 60 percent longer than India’s.

Poverty and Pollution

If affluence drives pollution at one end, the skewed, trickle-down pattern of India’s economic growth leaves millions of families still dependent on collected firewood for household energy and forces much of the peasantry to resort to stubble burning. The limited economic growth that trickles down gives them little capacity to adopt alternatives. This, too, worsens air quality

It is estimated that about 30 percent of pollution in north Indian winters is caused by the burning of biomass – wood and dung used for daily cooking and winter heating, along with stubble burning in late October and November.

Government schemes intended to help households shift from firewood to LPG remain underfunded, making the transition too expensive for much of rural India, where firewood collected by women continues to be a major energy source. With electric heating simply out of reach for the majority, open fires remain the main source of winter heating in rural north India —and even for migrant workers in the cities.

Are the peasants at fault?

The smoke from stubble burning in mid-October to November adds a temporary spike to an already high baseline of winter pollution generated by motor vehicles and other sources. Indian media seizes on this spike as the main culprit. Yet pollution levels remain just as severe through December and January —long after stubble burning has stopped— making it clear that the primary drivers of toxic air in Delhi and the wider region are the persistent sources, above all motor vehicles.

In the years 2023, Delhi had just a single day where the air quality was shown to be good. In 2024, Delhi did not have a single day of good air quality. All this can not be due to stubble burning which is limited to a month in winter.

Unwilling to confront the core issue of vehicular pollution —which would require abandoning its prioritisation of private road transport over cheaper public alternatives— the government has instead chosen to target farmers.

It is a fact that stubble burning worsens air quality. Farmers are not unaware of this; the smoke chokes their own villages before it ever reaches cities like Delhi. But with narrow margins and declining state support, the peasantry lacks workable alternatives. If stubble isn’t cleared quickly, the sowing of the Rabi crop is delayed, disrupting the entire crop cycle. Climate change has made this worse. For the past five to six years, the southwest monsoon has been arriving late in north India. June, once the normal sowing month, is now too dry, pushing sowing into July and shifting the Kharif harvest deeper into winter. At times the monsoon even lingers into October —as it did this year— so paddy ready for harvest gets drenched and must stand in the field for extra weeks to dry, delaying the harvest. As a result, there is little time after Kharif paddy for crop residue to decompose naturally before fields must be prepared for Rabi wheat.

In India where the majority of the peasants are small and marginal, who barely break even, it is the government’s responsibility to invest in technologies and develop crop varieties suited to the changing climate. Instead, the Indian state has been trying to withdraw even the limited support that exists, which is largely restricted to MSP (Minimum Support Price) for paddy and wheat. (The government has been trying to do away with MSP and fully hand agricultural markets to corporates, which resulted in historic farmers agitation in 2020-21).

The government frequently urges farmers to diversify into different crops to conserve water, to adjust to climate change, to withstand market vagaries, and so on,but offers no meaningful price support for alternative crops, invests little in new varieties and agricultural technologies, leaving it to agribusinesses, thereby making crop diversification unviable for farmers.

Rather than invest in technologies to manage crop residue and provide the financial support needed for farmers to adopt them, the government has chosen to impose heavy fines on an already strained peasantry while encouraging a steady stream of negative media coverage that paints farmers as the primary culprits of pollution. This framing serves a political purpose: it erodes public sympathy for farmers and lays the groundwork for future legislation that favours corporate interests seeking greater control over agriculture.

The scapegoating of farmers for pollution serves a dual purpose for the corporates whose interests the Indian state actively promotes. It lays the groundwork for a future push to corporatise agriculture by portraying farmers’ ‘backward practices’ as in need of modernisation. It also diverts attention from the real culprits —the automobile industry, the rise in private vehicle use, and the systematic neglect of public transport.

This article was produced by Globetrotter. 

Bodapati Srujana works in the area of agrarian relations in India, having participated in several studies around the country. She often writes on issues in the Indian Economy.

Health risks of air pollution from stubble burning poorly understood in various parts of Punjab, India

Research Institute for Humanity and Nature

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While many recognized severe air pollution in Delhi, fewer viewed local air quality as severe. Most households believed that smoke from stubble burning did not affect their health, even though many agreed that the practice is a major issue.

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Credit: Aakash Project, RIHN

In Punjab, India, paddy stubble burning is a widespread agricultural practice that contributes to seasonal air pollution in the region and beyond. However, the extent to which residents recognize its impact on their own environment and health or in the highly populated areas of Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) has remained unclear. To address this gap, the Aakash Project (led by researchers from Hokkaido University in collaboration with Indian research partners) conducted interviews with 2,202 households across 22 districts in Punjab.

 

Urban air pollution is recognized, but local sources are undervalued

About 46% of respondents perceived air pollution in Delhi as “severe,” while only 25% viewed air pollution in their own areas of Punjab as severe.

 

Personal health experience increases awareness

Households with family members experiencing respiratory or cardiovascular problems were more likely to recognize smoke from stubble burning as harmful and to view the practice as a pressing issue requiring action.

The study reveals a perception gap: while urban air pollution is widely acknowledged, the contribution of locally generated smoke from stubble burning remains less recognized. Personal or familial health experiences and health literacy play a crucial role in shaping awareness. These insights suggest that efforts to reduce stubble burning and improve air quality must include clear, locally grounded communication on health impacts, supported by accessible and visible air quality information.

 

*The Aakash project is exploring ways to shift people's behaviour to sustainable agriculture in the Punjab region to reduce the health hazards caused by air pollution, by clarifying observation-based relationship between straw burning and local air pollution; raising awareness of the importance of maintaining clean air among residents; and proposing the effective and beneficial use of rice straw by farmers.

 

Article information

Title： Perceptions of air pollution from stubble burning and its health risks in Punjab, India

Journal：Scientific Reports

Authors: Zhesi Yang, Kayo Ueda, Tomohiro Umemura, Kazunari Onishi, Hiroaki Terasaki, Tomoki Nakayama, Yutaka Matsumi, Kamal Vatta, Hikaru Araki, Sachiko Hayashida, Prabir K Patra

Article Publication Date： October 27, 2025

URL：https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-21235-8

 

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About RIHN

The Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN) is a national institute established in Kyoto in 2001. RIHN aims, through research that integrates the humanities and sciences, to address environmental issues concerning the relationship between "humanity" and "nature" in a broad sense as fundamental issues of human culture. We strive not only to engage the research community but also to collaborate with diverse stakeholders in society, including local residents, to find solutions to global environmental problems. 

For more detail, visit https://www.chikyu.ac.jp/rihn_e/.

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Journal

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-025-21235-8 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Perceptions of air pollution from stubble burning and its health risks in Punjab, India