Air pollution in India

 Air pollution is the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are different types of air pollutants, such as gases (such as ammonia, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides, methane and chlorofluorocarbons), particulates (both organic and inorganic), and biological molecules. Air pollution may cause diseases, allergies and even death to humans; it may also cause harm to other living organisms such as animals and food crops, and may damage the natural or built environment. Both human activity and natural processes can generate air pollution.

Air pollution is a significant risk factor for a number of pollution-related diseases, including respiratory infections, heart disease, COPD, stroke and lung cancer.^[1] The human health effects of poor air quality are far reaching, but principally affect the body's respiratory system and the cardiovascular system. Individual reactions to air pollutants depend on the type of pollutant a person is exposed to, the degree of exposure, and the individual's health status and genetics.^[2] Indoor air pollution and poor urban air quality are listed as two of the world's worst toxic pollution problems in the 2008 Blacksmith Institute World's Worst Polluted Places report.^[3] Outdoor air pollution alone causes 2.1^[4][5] to 4.21 million deaths annually.^[1][6] Overall, air pollution causes the deaths of around 7 million people worldwide each year, and is the world's largest single environmental health risk.^[1][7][8]

Productivity losses and degraded quality of life caused by air pollution are estimated to cost the world economy $5 trillion per year.^[9][10][11] Various pollution control technologies and strategies are available to reduce air pollution.

Mean acidifying emissions (air pollution) of different foods per 100g of protein[27]
Food Types	Acidifying Emissions (g SO2eq per 100g protein)
Beef	343.6
Cheese	165.5
Pork	142.7
Lamb and Mutton	139.0
Farmed Crustaceans	133.1
Poultry	102.4
Farmed Fish	65.9
Eggs	53.7
Groundnuts	22.6
Peas	8.5
Tofu	6.7

Anthropogenic (human-made) sources

Controlled burning of a field outside of Statesboro, Georgia in preparation for spring planting.

Smoking of fish over an open fire in Ghana, 2018

These are mostly related to the burning of fuel.

·        Stationary sources include smoke stacks of fossil fuel power stations (see for example environmental impact of the coal industry), manufacturing facilities (factories) and waste incinerators, as well as furnaces and other types of fuel-burning heating devices. In developing and poor countries, traditional biomass burning is the major source of air pollutants; traditional biomass includes wood, crop waste and dung.^[28][29]

·        Mobile sources include motor vehicles, trains (particularly diesel locomotives and DMUs), marine vessels and aircraft.

·        Controlled burn practices in agriculture and forest management. Controlled or prescribed burning is a technique sometimes used in forest management, farming, prairie restoration or greenhouse gas abatement. Fire is a natural part of both forest and grassland ecology and controlled fire can be a tool for foresters. Controlled burning stimulates the germination of some desirable forest trees, thus renewing the forest.

There are also sources from processes other than combustion.

·        Fumes from paint, hair spray, varnish, aerosol sprays and other solvents. These can be substantial; emissions from these sources was estimated to account for almost half of pollution from volatile organic compounds in the Los Angeles basin in the 2010s.^[30]

·        Waste deposition in landfills, which generate methane. Methane is highly flammable and may form explosive mixtures with air. Methane is also an asphyxiant and may displace oxygen in an enclosed space. Asphyxia or suffocation may result if the oxygen concentration is reduced to below 19.5% by displacement.

·        Military resources, such as nuclear weapons, toxic gases, germ warfare and rocketry.