According to a study, two third of deaths from air pollution in India are associated with secretions from diesel vehicles that claimed whopping 385,000 lives in 2015.
In the very same year, all the diesel vehicles on-road were responsible for nearly half of the health impacts of air pollution from vehicles worldwide. USD one trillion was the approximate global cost of these transportation-attributable health impacts in 2010 and 2015.
A major source of outdoor air pollution worldwide is the exhaust from vehicles. Moreover, the enormous health impacts are also unevenly distributed, both geologically and among various sections of the transportation sector, such as light-duty and heavy-duty vehicles.
The study by researchers linked the advanced vehicle emissions, air pollution, and epidemiological models to evaluate health impacts at the global, regional, national, and local levels in 2010 and 2015.
The study also depicts the most detailed picture available to the date of the global, regional, and local health impressions. This can be attributed to secretions from four transportation subsectors: on-road diesel vehicles, other on-road vehicles, shipping, and non-road mobile engines such as agricultural and construction equipment.
The vehicle emissions were linked to about 361,000 premature deaths from ambient PM2.5 and ozone worldwide in 2010 and about 385,000 in 2015, the researches of the study estimate.
The four largest vehicle markets in 2015: China, India, the European Union, and the US witnessed an estimated 70% of these impacts. Out of this, the finish from on-road diesel vehicles was responsible for nearly half of the impacts: 181,000 premature deaths worldwide, and fully two-thirds in India, France, Germany, and Italy.
The universal health problem of on-road diesel vehicles, including the PM2.5 and ozone impacts of all tailpipe emissions, is 68% higher than formerly assessed for diesel discharges.
Policy, demographic, economic and technological changes influence the distribution of health impacts and air pollution from transportation.
In addition to the estimated health effects on worldwide, regional, and national scales, the study also assessed the impacts in 100 major urban areas worldwide.
According to the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study of 2017, ambient air pollution is the leading environmental health risk factor worldwide, contributing to 3.4 million premature deaths annually from heart and lung diseases and diabetes.
Experts across the world are of the view that future seems to be dark if timely measures are not taken. Vehicle attributable health impacts declined in the US, European Union, and Japan as vehicle emission standards were implemented, but countries like India and China are yet to follow.
Image Credit: India Today
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