Application of the WHO air quality guidelines to address ambient air pollution exposures in India: The need to address outdoor and household sources

Abstract

Background: The global update of the WHO air quality guidelines in 2005, steered by the WHO Division of Air Quality and Health in Bonn provided for the first time, interim and guideline targets for specific criteria air pollutants. These allowed many developing countries, including India to benchmark their own national air quality standards against the interim targets and develop plans to reach guideline values in the long-term. Aim: To highlight special considerations in the application of the WHO air quality guidelines to address ambient air pollution exposures from outdoor and household sources in India. Methods: We provide an overview of the ambient air quality status in India from a comprehensive literature review and the data from the nearly 350 monitoring urban air quality monitoring stations being operated by the Central Pollution Control Board, Govt. of India. We also track important new emission and fuel quality related legislations brought forth to comply with the newly revised national ambient air quality standards, that in turn were driven by the WHO-air quality guidelines. We also provide results from a small number of studies that provide empirical or modeled estimates for contributions from household fuel use to ambient air pollution (primarily) in rural India. Results & Conclusion: The new estimates for the burden of disease attributable to ambient air pollution in India includes contributions from outdoor and household sources, but air quality regulation in India is perceived to be limited to urban cities The use of the WHO air quality guidelines affords a unique opportunity to include urban and rural air quality under the ambit of existing standards. We highlight the need to initiate intervention efforts beyond vehicular and industrial emission reductions and to include household cookfuel sector interventions to make substantive progress towards achieving air quality standards described by WHO AQGs in India.