There seems to have been a direct relation between clean air and life expectancy. Have you thought about it? You might have heard that there’s this direct co-relation between the clean air and life expectancy with regards to the dearth of clean air that’s around us.
But the question is, how does this relationship work? Is this symbiotic affair rather dangerous for the human populace and what can be possibly done about it?
Well, with a tall order of interesting questions ahead of us, here’s what we all need to know.
A recent study apparently found out that clean air can actually increase Indians’ average life expectancy. And now that there’s this finding by an international body linked to the West, one might be interested in knowing to what extent does clean air impact the life expectancy around us?
Here’s what might spin your mind into a different tangent, worth visiting.
Apparently, clean air can increase a person’s life expectancy by as much as 1.7 years. In today’s fast-paced, deadline-driven, timeline-determinant life that’s not such an awful news now is it?
Here’s another interesting perspective. If you were to go by the finding of Business Standard that published a report elaborating more on the recent study’s finding, you’d find yourself reading some immaculate stats:
If Indians had cleaner air to breathe, their average life expectancy would increase by 1.7 years, from the current 69 years to 70.7, this new study has shared.
To that regard, it’s worthwhile to mention just how bad the level of current air quality is in India, the world’s largest democracy and the second-most populous nation on the face of the earth.
Where 2017’s morose scenario stands, Indians wouldn’t want to forget the absolute decay in most urban cities. Where the capital city New Delhi mattered, things were anything but clear. In an important cricketing contest being played between India and Sri Lanka, things went to the extent of the visiting Sri Lankans refusing to take the field and appearing only upon wearing face masks to curb the pollutants enjoying a free hand.
But that was then, in 2017. Have things changed a year down the line? How do things appear in 2018?
Well, a few days back, it appeared in mainstream media that Delhi was still the most polluted city in the whole of the country and the remainder of the National Capital Region was abysmally engulfed in a layer of pollution, about as bad as the previous year.
Reports even suggested that perhaps Gurgaon’s air was far cleaner than the one in Delhi. This, at least, seemed a rational perspective on the paper.
So severe has been the enormity of pollution that in 2017 alone, around 1.24 million deaths were confirmed in India only because of pollution. That’s nearly one in eight deaths- doesn’t sound too promising at all, does it?
But, hang on.
All that told, there’s also been a string of reports being published in the mainstream print media that concern themselves with the various ways in which Indian government and authorities were to battle pollution. None of those measures has, at least, so far been seen, forget being implemented on a large scale.
One also got to hear a lot about smog-free towers being an ideal solution for a densely populated place like Delhi and similar cities. Where are they?
It was said that the government in Delhi was planning to install giant air purifiers to combat the excessive condition of air pollution. A concerned Delhi-ite might want to inquire if this has been done and where exactly? Architecture reaffirmed with green plantations et cetera was to have been the next viable step to immediately put a check on the expansive pollution- has this been done? Where are those buildings in the Delhi NCR region that conform to the ways of going green?
Having said the above, imagine how bad might things actually be where they are for states like Punjab are yet to find an ideal solution to crop-burning.
Moreover, there’s another issue the country might have to collectively ponder over and not just ponder about but find a quick solution to, for else, we are staring at a dark scenario. Here’s what is really upsetting:
About 77% of India’s population was found to be exposed to ambient air pollution levels above the national safety limit. Worst-hit northern states include less-developed ones–Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar–and affluent ones such as Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand.