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Ecology & Environment
Pradeep Kumar

01/07/21 12:25 PM IST

Premature mortality

In news

Black Carbon has a significant adverse effect on human health and leads to premature mortality, says a new study.

Issue
  • The Indo-Gangetic plain is exposed to black carbon (BC) with serious implications on regional climate and human health.
  • However, most of the pollutions-based epidemiological studies essentially relate exposure to particulate mass concentration (PM 10 and/-or PM 2.5) that invariably generalize all particulates with equal toxicity without distinguishing individuals by its source and composition, which genuinely have different health consequences.
Significance
  • The study could help in the estimation of the future burden of mortality associated with air pollutants more accurately.
  • The Indo-Gangetic plain is exposed to black carbon (BC) with serious implications on regional climate and human health. 
  • Importantly, the health effects in terms of mortality due to BC aerosol exposure have never been evaluated in India.
  • A typical urban pollution hotspot in central Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), the town experiences very high aerosol loading and trace gas concentrations throughout the year due to the prevalence of a subsidence zone and observed decadal increasing trends both in Aerosol Optical Depth and Black Carbon aerosols.
Black Carbon
  • Black carbon, or soot, is part of fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) and contributes to climate change.
  • Black carbon is formed by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, wood and other fuels.
  • Complete combustion would turn all carbon in the fuel into carbon dioxide (CO2), but combustion is never complete and CO2, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and organic carbon and black carbon particles are all formed in the process.
  • The complex mixture of particulate matter resulting from incomplete combustion is often referred to as soot.
Source: PIB

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