The Central Pollution Control Board — an Environment Ministry organisation that sets guidelines on monitoring and controlling pollution — says international studies linking air quality in India to disease and death are flawed because “…the ethologic, personnel immunity (sic) and demography of India are incomparable with international practices.”
Bodies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) used “arbitrary conversion factors [to measure the prevalence of different pollutants]” to rank cities for air quality, the CPCB alleged in an internal newsletter published in November 2016 but not made public.
The publication, called Matter-Fine Particulate: An Environmental Challenge, is a guide to understanding the genesis, prevalence, sources and health effect of extremely small particles of dust that can result from a wide range of causes including road dust, domestic cooking, and fossil fuel burning.
The size of these particles determines the ease with which they can be lodged within the body. Those smaller than 2.5 micron (PM 2.5) are generally implicated for respiratory and cardiovascular ailments.
Reacting, last week, to reports that air pollution killed 1.1 million Indians in 2015, Environment Minister Anil Dave told a conference, “We seem to be far more influenced by things out of India. We have several of our own organisations and experts…and I trust them as much as I do our Army.”
While acknowledging that PM 2.5 pollution was a problem, no Indian agency has quantified death and disease due to air pollution in India. The Central Pollution Control Board — an Environment Ministry organisation that sets guidelines on monitoring and controlling pollution — says international studies linking air quality in India to disease and death are flawed because “…the ethologic, personnel immunity (sic) and demography of India are incomparable with international practices.” Bodies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) used “arbitrary conversion factors [to measure the prevalence of different pollutants]” to rank cities for air quality, the CPCB alleged in an internal newsletter published in November 2016 but not made public.
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