The health benefits of air pollution control in Delhi

We draw two conclusions from this study: 1) The impact of particulate matter on total nontrauma deaths in Delhi, India, is smaller than effects found in the US. This is due to the fact that in Delhi a greater proportion of deaths occurs at younger ages and from causes not associated with air pollution than is the case in the US. Estimating the number of nontrauma deaths associated with air pollution. For a city in a developing country on the basis of US studies may therefore yield misleading results. 2) The impacts of air pollution on deaths by age-group may be very different in developing countries than in the US, where peak effects occur among people aged 65 and older. In Delhi, peak effects occur between the ages of 15 and 44, implying that a death associated with air pollution causes more life-years to be lost. We recognize that our results are based on data representing only 25% of the deaths that occurred in Delhi during the study period. When data for the remainder of the city become available, this study should be replicated to confirm our findings.