Air pollution more dreadful than ever

So long, air pollution known to be responsible for various health hazards, has now been found far more sinister in slashing life expectancy of a whole population. Dreadful as it is, the brunt has fallen most heavily on people living in this land. A study reported by the Reuters says that people in Bangladesh stand to lose 6.8 years of life on an average due to air pollution. The research study conducted by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) says rising air pollution can cut life expectancy by more than five years per person in South Asia-- one of the world's most polluted regions. The region, which includes Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan, accounts for more than half of the total life years lost globally to pollution, says the EPIC research in its latest Air Quality Life Index.

 It was detected by satellites and defined as particles with a diameter of 2.5 microns or less (PM2.5). Air pollution concentrations are then fed into the AQLI metric, which calculates their impact on life expectancy based on peer-reviewed methods. Residents of Bangladesh, where the average PM2.5 levels are 74 micrograms per cubic metre, would gain 6.8 years of life if they were brought down to 5.0 micrograms per cubic metre as per WHO guidelines, the research asserts. This conversely means that with the current state of air quality measured by micrograms per cubic metre, life expectancy of Bangladeshi people is slated to be contracted by 6.8 years.  

Globally, South Asia is the worst impacted region. Unplanned industrialisation and population growth have contributed to declining air quality in South Asia, where particulate pollution levels are currently more than 50 per cent higher than at the start of the century and now overshadow dangers posed by larger health threats. Among other South Asian countries, India is responsible for about 59 per cent of the world's increase in pollution since 2013, the report said, as hazardous air threatens to shorten lives further in some of the country's more polluted regions. China, on the other hand, has had remarkable progress in its war on air pollution.  Its air pollution dropped by 42.3 per cent between 2013 and 2021. According to the study, air pollution is more dangerous to the health of an average person on planet Earth than smoking or consuming alcohol, with the threat worsening in its global epicentre, South Asia.

That Bangladesh is one of the mot polluting countries with worsening air quality is not unknown. Alarm bells were sounded time and again to do away with some of the most damaging polluting agents like industrial waste, dust, smokes from brick kilns, hazardous emissions from chemical factories and so on. Isolated moves to arrest the deteriorating environmental conditions have not at all helped. Is it not time for a concerted action under a well devised national plan to curb the rampant onslaught?