Impacts of Air Pollution on Human Health: Present Status in India and Future Directions

Air pollution exposure has been identified as the second-largest health risk in India after maternal and child malnutrition. In India, health impact of air pollution has been examined using time-series studies for association between acute exposure and health endpoints, case-control and cross-section studies for association between long-term exposure and health endpoints, and cohorts for unravelling the causality. The long-term impacts of air pollution on mortality and morbidity has also been estimated in the Global Burden of Disease study, which outlines the exposure and burden disparity. India should invest resource to systematically collate health data, design cohorts, and improve exposure assessment to generate exposure-response functions for PM2.5 mass and species that are more representative of the Indian demography. This would allow health burden to be attributed to sectoral emissions and help the policymakers prioritize interventions based on the health benefit assessment linked to specific clean air targets. This chapter summarizes the existing health studies and presents a roadmap for way forward.