1.

3 Effects of Air Pollution

One of the most significant effect of air pollution is on climate change, particularly Global
Warming. As a result of growing world wide consumption of fossil fuels, Carbon dioxide
levels in the atmosphere have increased since 1900 and the rate of increase is accelerating.

Though many living things emit carbon dioxide when they breathe, the gas is widely
considered to be a pollutant when associated with cars, planes, power plants, and other
human activities that involve the burning of fossil fuels such as gasoline and natural gas.
That's because carbon dioxide is the most common of the greenhouse gases, which trap heat
in the atmosphere and contribute to climate change. Humans have pumped enough carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere over the past 150 years to raise its levels higher than they have
been for hundreds of thousands of years. Other greenhouse gases include methane which
comes from such sources as landfills, the natural gas industry, and gas emitted by livestock
and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which were used in refrigerants and aerosol
propellants until they were banned in the late 1980s because of their deteriorating effect on
Earth's ozone layer.

Another pollutant associated with climate change is sulfur dioxide, a component of smog.
Sulfur dioxide and closely related chemicals are known primarily as a cause of acid rain. But
they also reflect light when released in the atmosphere, which keeps sunlight out and creates
a cooling effect. Volcanic eruptions can spew massive amounts of sulfur dioxide into the
atmosphere, sometimes causing cooling that lasts for years. In fact, volcanoes used to be the
main source of atmospheric sulfur dioxide; today, people are.

Airborne particles, depending on their chemical makeup, can also have direct
effects separate from climate change. They can change or deplete nutrients in soil and
waterways, harm forests and crops, and damage cultural icons such as monuments and
statues.
The 2016 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranked India 141 out of 180 countries
surveyed.

Environment health, being the first policy objective, is given 50% weightage and it comprises
3 categories viz. health impacts, air quality and water and sanitation, each given 33%
weightage in the score within; whereas ecosystem vitality, being the second policy objective,
is again given 50% and it comprises 6 categories viz. water resources(25%), agriculture
(10%), forests (10%), fisheries(5%), biodiversity & habitat(25%) and climate &
energy(25%).

A very interesting observation is that China and India, despite having high GDP per PPP,
have received low scores on the EPI. However, we will be focusing on the issue of air quality
in the Indian context.

There is concrete evidence that air pollution leads to low birth-weight, tuberculosis, ischemic
heart disease, cataracts, asthma and nasopharyngeal and laryngeal cancers.

New research has found that air pollution might also affect cognitive development. PM2.5 are
so small that when inhaled they can enter the bloodstream, and recent medical research
indicates that it can cause the degeneration of blood-brain barriers, leading to oxidative stress,
neuro-inflammation and damage of neural tissue.

Air pollution is linked to diseases and infections that kill around 600,000 children under five
years of age per year.

Air quality in India is so poor that that 1.2 million deaths in the country last year can be
attributed to air pollution. A nationwide survey, published in Lancet Planetary Health on
Dec. 6, found that at least 12.5% of deaths in 2017, or one in eight, can be attributed to
unusually high rates of lower respiratory infections, heart disease, strokes, lung cancer, and
diabetes, which are a result of severe air pollution in a certain percentage of cases. Of the 1.2
million who died from air pollution-related causes, 51.4% were younger than 70 years old. In
total, more than three quarters of India’s population is exposed to air pollution that’s higher
than the recommended level set by India’s government. That level, in turn, is four times the
maximum recommended by the World Health Organization. No Indian state achieves
pollution levels at or below the WHO’s limits.