RWAs say Dave comment on impacts of air quality 'detrimental'

Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave's comments "discounting" health impacts of poor air quality, is "detrimental" to the people's movement for right to breathe clean air, a body of Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) across the national capital today said.
"The reported statement will cause confusion in the minds of the public. It will be a setback for efforts to build social consciousness about clean air.
"That which impacts health negatively is also capable of causing or hastening death. There are enough studies conducted both in India and globally to establish this relationship," said Ashutosh Dikshit, CEO United Residents' Joint Action of Delhi (URJA) in a statement.

Dave, in a written reply to a question in Parliament recently had said there is no conclusive data available in the country to establish direct co-relationship of death exclusively with air pollution.
Greenpeace India in its study in January had claimed that nearly 12 lakh deaths take place every year due to air pollution in the country.
A 2016 report by the World Bank and the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation attempted to quantify the cost of air pollution deaths to the Indian economy.

It estimated that the cost of premature mortality due to air pollution exposure totalled $560 billion in 2013.

This does not include lost productivity due to disability or costs associated with treatment of chronic respiratory and cardiovascular conditions, URJA said in the statement.
"The environment Minister, Anil Madhav Dave's comments... is being seen as detrimental to the people's movement for the right to clean air," the body said.
Greenpeace India had also reacted to the Minister's comment saying the government should not waste time on debating the "already established" link and take "urgent and corrective" action.
URJA, a network of 2500 RWAs across the national capital, was set up in 2005 to uphold public opinion and demand efficient delivery of civic amenities like clean air and water.

The statement quoting Bhargav Krishna from the Public Health Foundation of India and Care for Air said true economic cost of air pollution cannot be determined unless we examine health expenditure.
"The increase in pollution-driven illnesses like respiratory and cardiovascular diseases is a strain on the country's fragmented and under-funded public health system. By not acknowledging the evidence, the problem will not go away, but only worsen," he said.