Already bewildered by continued air pollution, Bangladesh now deals another blow – polluted air reduces life expectancy by an average of nearly seven years. The figure is a little over three times higher than the worldwide one.
In Bangladesh, the debacle happens as the country’s annual average particulate pollution level exceeds both the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines and its own national standard of 15 µg/m³.
Particularly, the WHO guidelines see a staggering 15-fold violation in Bangladesh.
The not-so-welcoming information was divulged by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago through its “Air Quality Life Index” on Tuesday.
PM2.5 pollution -- 2.5 microns across or less, roughly the diameter of a human hair -- penetrates deep into the lungs and enters the bloodstream.
In 2013, the United Nations classified it as a cancer-causing agent.
The WHO says PM2.5 density in the air should not top 15 micrograms per cubic metre in any 24-hour period, or 5 mcg/m3 averaged across an entire year.
Faced with mounting evidence of damaging health impacts, the WHO tightened these standards last year, the first change since establishing air quality guidance in 2005.
Shockingly, air pollution shortens lives by nearly 9 years in Dhaka -- the country’s most polluted city, followed by 6.6 years in Chittagong, the index reveals.
In Dhaka, air pollution is significantly higher than the national average of 88.9 µg/m³.
However, Dhaka dwellers saw a slight improvement in air quality on Tuesday after Monday night’s rains.
In Bangladesh, the air quality is based on five criteria pollutants -- Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2 and Ozone.
The average life expectancy of Bangladeshis was measured at 72.8 years in 2020 during the outbreak of coronavirus, up from 72.6 years in 2019.
Bangladesh recorded around 25,400 premature deaths due to air pollution in 2005 and 52,400 in 2018.
The annual particulate pollution level increased by 13.1% from 2019 to 2020, despite the fact that Covid-19 lockdowns were in place.
Since 1998, the average annual particulate pollution has increased 65%, cutting average life expectancies by an additional 3 years. In each of the country’s 64 districts, particulate pollution levels far exceed the WHO guideline.
Global scenario
Microscopic air pollution caused mostly by burning fossil fuels shortens lives worldwide by more than two years.
Across South Asia, the average person would live five years longer if levels of fine particulate matter met WHO standards.
In the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, home to 300 million, crippling lung and heart disease caused by so-called PM2.5 pollution reduces life expectancy by eight years, and in the capital city of New Delhi by a decade.
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"Clean air pays back in additional years of life for people across the world," lead researcher Crista Hasenkopf and colleagues said in the index.
"Permanently reducing global air pollution to meet the WHO's guidelines would add 2.2 years onto average life expectancy."
Major gains in China
Almost all populated regions in the world exceed WHO guidelines, but nowhere more so than in Asia: by 10-fold in India, and nine-fold in Nepal and Pakistan each.
Central and West Africa, along with much of Southeast Asia and parts of central America, also face pollution levels -- and shortened lives -- well above the global average.
Surprisingly, PM2.5 pollution in 2020, the most recent data available, was virtually unchanged from the year before despite a sharp slow-down in the global economy and a corresponding drop in CO2 emissions due to Covid lockdowns.
"In South Asia, pollution actually rose during the first year of the pandemic," the authors noted.
One country that has seen major improvements is China.
PM2.5 pollution fell in the nation of 1.4 billion people by almost 40% between 2013 and 2020, adding two years to life expectancy.
But even with this progress, lives in China are on average cut short today by 2.6 years.
The worst-hit provinces include Henan and Hebei, in north-central China, and the coastal province of Shandong.
Compared to other causes of premature death, the impact of PM2.5 pollution is comparable to smoking tobacco, more than three times that of alcohol use, and six times that of HIV/AIDS, the report said
