Invited Perspective: Forward Progress in Characterizing the Mortality Burden of PM2.5 for India

Details

• Personal Author:
  Adar SD ; Pant P
• Description:
  Home to nearly 1.4 billion people (World Bank 2022), India is one of the most populated countries in the world. India also has some of the highest levels of air pollution, with an estimated population-weighted mean fine ambient particulate matter [PM ≤2.5µm in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5)] concentration of 91.7 µg/m3 in 2019 and virtually all people living at levels above the World Health Organization's (WHO) Air Quality Guidelines (India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative Air Pollution Collaborators 2021). Given these high exposures, it has been estimated that nearly 1 million deaths and 31 million years of healthy life were lost in 2019 due to ambient PM2.5. ... Despite these potential issues, this study is important as the first to evaluate long-term PM2.5 exposure and mortality across all of India. Together with other recent studies (Hadley et al. 2022; Hystad et al. 2019, 2020), it begins to resolve a critical research gap on the adverse health effects of air pollution in low- and middle-income countries and regions with high levels of ambient air pollution. Somewhat curiously, results from this study differ significantly from the global body of evidence, especially on cardiovascular outcomes. This warrants attention and the work should be extended with confirmation of these findings in other data sets with individual-level data, evaluations of household air pollution-mortality relationships, and use of personal exposure estimates in future analyses. Fortunately, there is a rapid growth of research in India, including studies such as the Longitudinal Aging Study of India (Bloom et al. 2021), Tamil Nadu Air Pollution and Health Effects (Balakrishnan et al. 2015), Global Environmental and Occupational Health-India (Walia et al. 2020), and Cardiovascular Health Effects of Air Pollution in Andhra Pradesh, India (Tonne et al. 2017). There are also ongoing efforts to strengthen collaborations and technical expertise on air pollution epidemiology through the Collaborative for Air Pollution and Health Effects Research-India. Therefore, we expect to see a rapid expansion in the research building upon this work in the future. Better characterization of the health effects of PM2.5 in India will ultimately be useful in informing future strategies to improve public health in India as well as our understanding of health effects of air pollution globally. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollution Environmental Exposure Occupational Health Particulate Matter Safety
• Keywords:
  Air Pollution Environmental Exposure Environmental Health Mortality Studies Particulates
• ISSN:
  0091-6765
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; Michigan ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  130
• Issue:
  9
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20070577
• Citation:
  Environ Health Perspect 2022 Sep; 130(9):91303
• Contact Point Address:
  Sara D. Adar, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 1420 Washington Heights, SPHII-5539, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA
• Email:
  sadar@umich.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2022
• Performing Organization:
  University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Environmental Health Perspectives
• End Date:
  20280630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:fad3a978effe5095bddb5f9719ddb865bf22c283ea3f4702f2f46654e37d1048b0b48ffa933d5bf68396b57f5a36d280b266698102b3fef192d10dbc80086399
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/208757/cdc_208757_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 80.44 KB ]