Not One City In Northern India Meets International Air Quality Standards - Guardian
Not a single city in northern India meets international air quality standards, according to a Greenpeace report that estimates air pollution kills more than 1 million Indians each year and takes 3% off the country’s GDP. The report released this week also shows that levels of the most dangerous airborne pollutants grew by 13% in India between 2010 and 2015 but fell at least 15% over the same period in China, the US and Europe.
It adds to a growing body of research showing the problem of toxic air is not limited only to the Indian capital, Delhi, but afflicts almost all the country’s large cities, particularly in the north.
Air quality data gathered for 2015 from state pollution control boards and under freedom of information laws showed “there are virtually no places in India complying with World Health Organisation and national ambient air quality (NAAQ) standards, and most cities are critically polluted”, the report said.
“Except for a few places in southern India which complied with NAAQ standards, the entire country is experiencing a public health crisis due to high air pollution levels.” The report added that “deaths due to air pollution are only a fraction less than the number of deaths caused by tobacco usage”, citing the Lancet’s global burden of disease study, which shows about 3,283 Indians die each day due to exposure to outdoor air pollution.
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/13/all-north-indian-cities-fail-meet-air-quality-standards-report-finds
