Coal kills: health impacts of air pollution from India’s coal power expansion
The planned expansion of coal burning in India will double or triple the amount of premature deaths from air pollution by 2030, according to a new report from the Conservation Action Trust and Urban Emissions. India is already the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases; and its coal plant emissions are having significant health impacts. Figures from 2012 say that 80,000 to 115,000 Indians die every year due to chronic lung conditions, respiratory infections, heart diseases, strokes, bronchitis and trachea and lung cancers. This report claims that number will rise to between 186,500 and 229,500 annual deaths by 2030, and asthma cases associated with coal-fired thermal power plant emissions will reach around 42.7 million.