Air pollution poses India’s gravest health threat since Covid, UK-based doctors warn
Pulmonologists and cardiologists say a vast burden of undiagnosed lung and heart disease is building as exposure to toxic emissions rises across cities
Air pollution has emerged as the most serious public health challenge India has faced since the Covid-19 pandemic and will worsen year after year unless urgent action is taken, senior Indian-origin doctors based in the United Kingdom have warned.
Speaking to PTI, leading pulmonologists and cardiologists said a “silent tsunami” of airway and cardiovascular disease is building across the country, much of it undiagnosed and untreated, with potentially devastating consequences for India’s healthcare system.
They cautioned that while the visible spike in respiratory complaints draws attention each winter, it represents only a fraction of the actual damage caused by years of sustained exposure to toxic emissions from transport, industry and urban activity.
Consultant pulmonologist Manish Gautam, based in Liverpool and a former member of India’s Covid-19 Advisory Committee, said millions of people in north India may already be living with irreversible lung damage. “What is currently being managed is just the tip of the iceberg,” he told PTI, warning that a full-blown lung health emergency is unfolding.
Gautam stressed that pollution control measures alone are no longer sufficient and urged policymakers to prioritise early detection, structured treatment and the creation of a rapid national “lung health task group”, similar to programmes that successfully reduced the burden of tuberculosis.
Doctors pointed to recent data from Delhi hospitals showing a 20 to 30 per cent rise in respiratory patients in December alone, including first-time cases and young adults, as a sign of the growing crisis.
The warning comes even as the government maintains that there is no conclusive data directly linking higher Air Quality Index (AQI) levels to lung disease or mortality. During the winter session of Parliament, authorities acknowledged air pollution as a trigger for respiratory ailments but stopped short of establishing a causal relationship.
Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari, however, admitted that nearly 40 per cent of Delhi’s pollution comes from the transport sector, driven largely by fossil fuel use, and underscored the need for cleaner alternatives such as biofuels.
Cardiology experts said the health impact of pollution extends far beyond the lungs. Rajay Narain, honorary cardiologist at St George’s University Hospital in London, said there is “overwhelming scientific evidence” linking air pollution to cardiovascular, neurological and systemic diseases. Delays in addressing the issue, he warned, will only increase long-term health and economic costs.
Narain added that early symptoms, including fatigue, headaches, throat irritation, mild cough, skin rashes and recurrent infections, are often dismissed, even though they may signal the onset of serious chronic illness.
Professor Derek Connolly, a consultant cardiologist at Midland Metropolitan University Hospital in Birmingham, said cardiovascular damage caused by pollution is particularly insidious. “This is a slow, silent process,” he said, noting that particulate matter is invisible and exposure often goes unnoticed, even on days when pollution levels appear moderate.
Connolly also questioned the tendency to attribute the rise in heart disease primarily to obesity, arguing that increased exposure to toxic emissions from automobiles and aircraft over the past decade has played a significant role.
Official data underline the scale of the challenge. According to the health ministry, more than two lakh cases of acute respiratory illness were recorded in Delhi over the past three years, with around 30,000 hospitalisations. The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change reported that PM2.5 pollution caused over 17 lakh deaths in India in 2022, with petrol-driven road transport accounting for nearly 2.7 lakh of them.
Global research suggests that decisive action could save millions of lives. A study by the International Council on Clean Transportation found that stronger policies on road transport emissions could prevent 1.9 million deaths and avert 1.4 million new cases of childhood asthma worldwide by 2040.
Doctors say India has demonstrated before that large-scale public health interventions are possible. Without a similar sense of urgency now, they warn, air pollution will continue to exact a heavy and lasting toll on the nation’s health.
With PTI inputs