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Lower Pollution, Longer Lives
India's population is exposed to dangerously high levels of air pollution. Using a combination of ground-level in situ measurements and satellite-based remote sensing data, this paper estimates that 660 million people, over half of India's population, live in areas that exceed the Indian National Ambient Air Quality Standard for fine particulate pollution. Reducing pollution in these areas to achieve the standard would, we estimate, increase life expectancy for these Indians by 3.2 years on average for a total of 2.1 billion life years. We outline directions for environmental policy to start achieving these gains.
We thank Harvard's Sustainability Science Program for hosting the India Initiative and funding. We also thank Susanna Berkouwer for research assistance and an anonymous referee for helpful comments. All views and errors are solely ours.
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