Pollution, the silent killer

A study just released has concluded that air, water and other types of pollution in India is so bad it may have killed more than 2.5 million people in 2015. Another study that had come out earlier this year put the death toll due to air pollution alone at over a million. While the methodology in a growing body of research and the findings of various studies may be questioned as to their accuracy, it stands to reason that we must wake up as a nation if we do not desire to make the very living in the country a matter of life and death due to pollution. It is a fact of life that the outdoor air pollution in the country is bad because of various contributory factors like indiscriminate burning of fossil fuels for generating power and running extremely inefficient transport engines, mainly in the urban centres. Besides, industrial and domestic wastes are polluting water sources with disdain.

There is no denying that outdoor and indoor pollution causes serious diseases of the heart and lungs. The toxic “fine particulate matter” is a cause of disease and early death in several countries around the world which means mankind is bent on destroying itself by the way it lives at the cost of the environment. The young in India are not being given a chance to grow normally and without danger to their lungs and this cannot be wished away by quibbling over how many deaths are caused by pollution and at what cost to the economy. The problem is exacerbated since India has a very weak public healthcare system, eternally underfunded and virtually non-existent in remote rural areas. Government cynicism over international health studies of this nature is understandable, but we must stop to consider whether government’s inability to act is causing it. Only by admitting there is a problem can we, at least, begin trying to address it.