image: Smoke coming from village households in Ladakh, India. view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Ajay Pillarisetti.
A study examines the effects of mitigating household fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions in India on ambient exposure and health. Recent studies suggest that the largest contributor to ambient (PM2.5) exposure in India is household emissions, which include biomass burning for cooking and heating, as well as kerosene for lighting. Kirk Smith, Sagnik Dey, and colleagues quantified the effects of various household emissions mitigation scenarios on PM2.5 exposure in India. Complete mitigation of emissions from cooking alone would reduce mean annual ambient PM2.5 exposure by more than 17%. In a hypothetical "ideal" scenario, in which clean fuels replace all major sources of household PM2.5 emissions, 103 additional districts, comprising 187 million people, would meet India's National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS), compared with the 2015 baseline. Under such a scenario, mean annual PM2.5 exposure would decrease from 55 μg/m3 to 38 μg/m3, below the NAAQS, which would in turn avert 13% of the country's premature mortality. Only a few highly polluted areas, such as the Delhi National Capital Region, would continue to substantially exceed the NAAQS. Such a scenario might be achieved through additional measures to promote clean fuel usage for all household sources, according to the authors.
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Article #19-00888: "Indian annual ambient air quality standard is achievable by completely mitigating emissions from household sources," by Sourangsu Chowdhury et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Kirk R. Smith, University of California, Berkeley, CA; tel: 510-643-0793, 510-914-0620, e-mail: <krksmith@berkeley.edu>; Sagnik Dey, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, INDIA; tel: +91-9873544872, +91-11-26591315, email: <sagnik@cas.iitd.ac.in>
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences