The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change claimed in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that there is no definitive data “to establish a direct correlation of deaths including lung cancer exclusively with air pollution”

“Air pollution is one of the many factors affecting respiratory ailments and associated diseases,” Minister of State for Environment Kirti Vardhan Singh told Parliament in response to a question by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ashok Shankarrao Chavan.

Chavan’s question referred to two recent studies published in the journal The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, one of which suggests a rapid increase in the global incidence of lung cancer and the other estimating that air pollution caused 16 lakh deaths in India in 2021 – with emissions from fossil fuels like coal and liquid natural gas being responsible for 38% of them.

Chavan asked the government to respond to the claims made in the studies and detail the steps it had taken to alleviate air pollution.

“Health is impacted by a number of factors which include food habits, occupational habits, socio-economic status, medical history, immunity, heredity, etc. of the individuals apart from the environment,” Singh responded.

The minister said that the studies in Lancet Respiratory Medicine were “conducted using statistical models and have limitations” and said that, according to government data, only 25 of 291 cities experienced “severe” air quality in 2024.

Air pollution is measured by the air quality index, or AQI. An index value between 0 to 50 indicates “good” air quality, between 51 and 100 “satisfactory” air quality and between 101 to 200 “moderate” air quality.

As the index value increases, air quality deteriorates. A value of 201 and 300 means “poor” air quality while between 301 and 400 indicates “very poor” air. Between 401 and 450 indicates “severe” air quality while values of more than 450 are as “severe plus”.

At these levels, healthy people can experience respiratory illnesses from prolonged exposure to air pollution.

Also read: Fact check: Is there no link between air pollution and health, as a Union minister claims?