Dr Harsh Vardhan marked the beginning of his second stint as Union Health Minister by cycling to work on the occasion of World Bicycle Day, welcoming the benefits of cycling for health and the environment. In a tweet, the Minister cited cycling as his favourite sport and said the activity is a “simple, affordable, reliable, […]
Air Pollution
A short stay in an Indian city is unhealthy?
Air pollution in India’s cities is unhealthy: this fact goes without saying. But just how unhealthy is it? Recent evidence from New York University (NYU) School of Medicine study indicates that even a short stay in a polluted city is damaging to health. For Indians living out their daily lives in seven of the world’s […]
Traffic pollution causing an asthma crisis in India’s youth
Pollution from traffic is driving an asthma crisis in India’s children, a new study suggests. Exposure to traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) contributes to 350,000 new cases of childhood asthma in India every year, estimates a research paper published today in The Lancet. This is the second highest burden of new TRAP-related cancer cases in the […]
Is the media failing Indians on air pollution?
The Indian media’s silence over a recent study highlighting the deaths of over one million people in 2017 due to pollution is an indication of how newsworthy pollution is – or isn’t – for the media industry, which rides high on political communication. Health is a boring subject for news media and now a new […]
Air pollution is India’s apocalypse that won’t go away
More than two years ago, Greenpeace warned that India was facing an “apocalypse” because of air pollution. This week, we are given yet another warning about the public health catastrophe brewing in the air and festering in Indians’ lungs. This is thanks to the 2019 State of Global Air Report. In 2017, India lost 1.2 million […]
How air pollution ruins child health
Poisonous air is causing toxic damage to people across the world. Nine out of ten of us breathe polluted air. Now for the first time, a World Health Organisation (WHO) report has highlighted its damaging impact on child health and survival. Over 93 percent of the world’s 1.8 billion children are exposed to toxic air […]
India still topping the air pollution lists
Seven of the world’s ten most polluted cities are in India. The findings highlight an issue which has long been a blight on public health in the country – and one that is unlikely to be resolved in the near future. The new data reveals that not much has changed since the previous announcement that […]
The cost of crop burning
Every year, India’s paddy field farmers burn seven to eight million metric tonnes of crop waste. The effect of this on India is astronomical – both on the country’s wallet, and its people’s health. Crop burning incurs a cost of almost US$30 billion every year, new research suggests. A groundbreaking study led by the International […]
Which city is the most polluted in India?
A sharp and worrying rise in pollution rates is being felt especially in the north of India, whose metros dominate the list of India’s most polluted cities. Bihar capital Patna tops the list. Kanpur and Varanasi – both in Uttar Pradesh – follow in second and third place respectively. Delhi places fourth in the rankings, […]
Kolkata was the most polluted city in India this November, not Delhi
Kolkata may be India’s ‘City of Joy’, but pollution meant residents had little cause for happiness this November. Coverage surrounding India’s air pollution crisis often centres on Delhi. However, the national capital was not the most polluted city this month. This distinction fell to Kolkata, which recorded Air Quality Index (AQI) readings worse than those […]