Thirty per cent of all premature deaths in the country are due to air pollution. As per the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) report, more than 2.7 million people in India die of heart diseases every year.
CSE in its report mentioned that 52 per cent of them below the age of 70 and over 61 per cent of all deaths in India attributed to lifestyle or non-communicable diseases (NCDs) instance -Body Burden, as per the latest nation’s health report released here by CSE.
The report further states that more than 1.73 million new cancer cases are likely to be recorded each year by 2020 due to air pollution, tobacco, alcohol and diet change.
CSE report also mentioned that every 12th Indian is a diabetic. “India ranks second in the list of countries with highest diabetes patients,” the report quoted.
While mentioning about child health report in Delhi, the report said that every third child in Delhi has impaired lungs and India had 35 million chronic asthma patients in 2016. “Air pollution causes 30 per cent of all premature deaths in the country and more than 2.7 million people in India die of heart diseases every year,” report quoted.
As per the findings of World Health Organization (WHO), there are four major risk factors for NCDs, instance - alcohol, tobacco, poor diet intake and lack of physical activity.
The WHO also said that by investing just US $1-3 per person per year, countries can dramatically reduce illness and death from NCDs.
Sunita Narain, director general, CSE, the investment for India will be much higher. “We believe the cost is going to be much higher considering that risk factors (in India) are many more than the four identified by the global body.”
“These risk factors have multiple targets and can cause diseases which are not generally linked to them. For example, exposure to pesticides is known to cause cancer, but new data is emerging to link it to diabetes as well,” Naraian added.
Vibha Varshney, the lead writer and researcher of CSE report, said, “Targeting environmental risk factors is essential if we want to meet the Sustainable Development Goal 3.4, which mandates a one-third reduction in premature deaths due to lifestyle diseases by 2030.”
“Though the WHO has identified the major risk factors for NCDs, it is still coy in calling out the real enemy foods that are high in salt, sugar, fat and low in nutrition. It wants to play it as safe as possible so that it does not have to confront the real players and demand a restraint on their products, not through voluntary action but through government policies that restrict and restrain and put a premium on nutrition, not consumption,” said Narain.