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By Miranda Hopkins
In January 2021 a report was published in the Lancet Planetary Health journal linking air pollution in South Asia to miscarriage by evaluating exposure to PM2.5 particles. These particles, which have a diameter of 2.5 micrometres, are highly dangerous as they are small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs. The report suggested that 7% of miscarriages in India were a result of air pollution that exceeded India’s standard of air quality, which stands at 40 micrograms of PM2.5 particles per cubic metre of air; the same report also concluded that 29.7% of India’s pregnancy losses were attributable to air pollution in excess of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) standards of air quality, which is 10 micrograms of PM2.5 particles per cubic metre of air.
Not only does India’s standard of air quality fall far short of the standard of the WHO, but the reality of India is also such that exposure to PM2.5 particles is over 8 times higher than the WHO standard. The study published in January 2021 was the first study to link air
pollution and miscarriage in South Asia, yet it follows on from many studies into deaths attributed to air pollution in developing countries. In December 2020, a study published in the same journal by a research professor at the Public Health Foundation of India, Rakhi Dandona, concluded that 17.8% of total deaths in India were attributable to air pollution in 2019. The growing frequency with which reports of this nature are being published reflects a growing awareness of the urgent impact of carbon emissions on individuals and the climate.
Who is impacted by air pollution and why?
Developing South Asian countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are not the only countries to have experienced an increase in deadly air pollution. The 2020 State of Global Air report claimed PM2.5 particle pollution has been increasing over the last decade, and other studies have put the global increase of pollution levels between the years 2008 and 2013 at 8%. However, people in developing countries are disproportionately impacted by poor air quality, and India has recorded the highest increase in the quantity of ozone molecules in the air out of the world’s 20 most populous countries over the past decade. The main reason for this is that the economy in developing countries is still maturing. In order to provide capital for investment and reinvestment, governments continue to allow the burning of coal to create cheap energy. Air pollution is still considered a ‘necessary evil’ for economic growth, and it is common for governments to see restrictions on the burning of fossil fuels as barriers to economic growth. For countries focussed on building an economy that will give their citizens a standard of living comparable to developed nations, the environment must, misguidedly, be sacrificed.
The impact of air pollution on the economy
However, this report and others have sought to show the inaccuracy of the idea that economic growth and environmentalism cannot coexist. In fact, the economic damage caused by air pollution is significant. Dandona’s report in the Lancet Planetary Journal in December 2020 estimated that the quantifiable economic impact of premature deaths caused by air pollution was a loss of $36.8 billion to India’s economy per year. In 2015, the WHO and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimated that the yearly economic cost of premature death and disability from air pollution in Europe is close to $1.6 trillion, and given the disproportionately high amount of air pollution in developing nations, this can only be significantly amplified in South Asian. Similarly, the lead researcher in the January 2021 study, Tao Xue, links miscarriages to the economy by pointing out that pregnancy takes women out of the economy, and the loss of a pregnancy means that this economic sacrifice has not resulted in the creation of the next generation of workers.
Thus, according to Xue, in the short and long term, air-pollution induced miscarriages are an avoidable detriment to the economy. A study by Chen, Olivia and Zhang in 2018 linked air pollution to mental health, and concluded that based on average health expenditures associated with mental illness and rates of treatment among those with symptoms, air pollution-related mental health induced a total annual cost of $22.88 billion in health expenditures. One only has to consider Tao Xue’s claim that miscarriages are often linked to postnatal depressive disorders to understand the extent of the economic impact of miscarriages in developing countries. By addressing humanitarian and environmental issues through an economic lens, governments in developing countries will be far more likely to listen to such reports and implement policies.
What needs to be done?
Reports like these, appealing to the economics of developing countries, have the potential to be impactful. Governments in South Asian countries need to implement greater environmental regulations and restrictions on vehicles and fossil fuel plants, which together constitute the largest source of PM2.5 particles. However, developed countries also have a responsibility to lead the way, and invest in clean air initiatives and technologies in developing countries. If it is the case that air pollution is caused by the emerging economies of developing countries - countries that were the former colonies of European nations- then Western governments are just as responsible for reversing the long-lasting impact of imperialism as the governments of South Asian countries themselves.
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