A report released on Monday by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) says that air pollution in the national capital in 2016 reduced life expectancy by more than 10 years.

The concentration of fine particulate matter increased by 69 per cent on an average across India, decreasing life expectancy by 4.3 years compared to 2.2 years in 1998. The concentration of fine particulate matter is extremely high in the North Indian state such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and the national capital Delhi. This reduces the life expectancy.

Today India is considered as the world’s most polluted country and Delhi falls second among 60 most polluted areas in the nation.

The rapid increase in pollution is harming everyone. Pregnant Women and Children are highly affected with the raise of toxic substances in the air.

A report presented by WHO says that, this pollution is more dangerous than smoke and alcohol. Indians could lived 4.3 years more as compared to other countries of the world if 2016 air quality met the World Health Organization’s (WHO) annual safe air quality guidelines of 10 micrograms per cubic metre.

The report of Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) says that this particulate pollution is reducing 1.8 years of life expectancy worldwide, making the greatest global threat for mankind.

It is said that, as compared to pollution, first-hand cigarette smoke leads to a reduction in global average life expectancy of about 1.6 years.

As per report, air pollution levels in the last week was in the very poor category, and even going to be more polluted in the upcoming days.

PM 2.5 concentration was measured at 124 microgram/m3 in 2016, which is 1.6 times more than 70 microgram/m3 in 1998. Air pollution levels have more than doubled in many districts since 1998. Districts such as Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar shows high raise in PM 2.5 between 2014- 2016.

“These trends need to be examined in detail on whether there was a sudden spike in recent years in some districts. The general air pollution trend is showing an increase. We didn’t have any national scale policy on reducing air pollution in a time bound manner. In Delhi, CNG was introduced for public transport in the late 90s, but with population rise, there must have been a huge rise in anthropogenic sources of pollution,” said Sagnik Dey, associate professor at Centre for Atmospheric Sciences in IIT-Delhi.