By Brad Plumer
Originally published by Vox, February 24, 2015
China's struggles with smog and air pollution have gotten a lot of attention over the years.
But the air quality in India now appears to be even worse — with one new study finding that excess pollution is reducing the life expectancy of 660 million Indians by 3.2 years, on average.
Some background: The World Health Organization recently published data on pollution around the world, focusing on airborne particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers (known as PM2.5). These particles come from coal plants and vehicles, and, at high levels, have been linked to serious respiratory problems.
On this score, 13 of the world's 20 most-polluted cities are all in India. And India's cities have much higher PM2.5 levels than China's.
So how much harm is all this pollution causing? A new study in Economic & Political Weekly — a top journal in Mumbai — finds that 660 million people in India now live in areas where PM2.5 levels exceed the country's national air-quality standards. (And, as the chart shows, India's a standards are already looser than even China's.) That excess pollution alone, they estimate, reduces life expectancy at birth by 3.2 years, on average.
To learn more, read the full article on Vox.