India is home to 18 of the 20 cities with the most severe increase in fine particle pollutants (PM2.5) from 2010 to 2019, according to a comprehensive and detailed analysis of air pollution and global health effects for over 7,000 cities released. The report published by the US-based research organisation Health Effects Institute (HEI) also shows that Delhi has the highest average level of fine PM 2.5 among the world’s most populated cities.
The analysis used data from 2010 to 2019 and focussed on two of the most harmful pollutants; fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2).The report ‘Air Quality and Health in Cities’ combined ground-based air quality data with satellites and models to produce air quality estimates for cities around the world.
The authors noted that in 2019, 1.7 million deaths linked to PM2.5 exposure occurred in the 7,239 cities included in the analysis, with cities in Asia, Africa, and Eastern and Central Europe seeing the greatest health impacts.They zoomed in to the most populous cities in each region i.e. a subset of 103 cities across 21 regions