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Lower Pollution, Longer Lives: Life Expectancy Gains if India Reduced Particulate Matter Pollution
(with Michael Greenstone, Janhavi Nilekani, Rohini Pande, Nicholas Ryan, Anant Sudarshan, Anish Sugathan). |
Environment and Pollution
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India’s population is exposed to dangerously high levels of air pollution. Using a combination of ground-level in situ measurements and satellite-based remote sensing data from the existing literature, this paper estimates that 660 million people, over half of India’s population, live in areas that exceed the Indian National Ambient Air Quality Standard for fine particulate pollution. Reducing pollution in these areas to achieve the standard would, we estimate, increase life expectancy for these Indians by 3.2 years on average for a total of 2.1 billion life years. We outline directions for environmental policy to start achieving these gains.
Related Resources: The Air Quality Life Index |