According to a new report, the deaths related to air pollution have risen six times in the previous one decade in India.

The country specific data on Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) report showed that air pollution has emerged as one of the largest causes of for deaths in 2010 in the country. Ana analysis by Health Effects Institute, which is based in Washington, showed that indoor air pollution and direct and indirect tobacco smoking caused one million deaths each year while 620,000 people died because of outdoor air pollution in 2010.

Aaron Cohen, the head of the expert group on air pollution for the analysis also said that air pollution caused 20 per cent of lung cancer and 6 per cent of high blood pressure deaths in the country. The data pointed out that the India does not have any standard for indoor air pollution and policy makers chose to ignore indoor air pollution.

The average household particulate matter pollution was recorded at 350 micro gram per cubic meter of air, which is ten times more than that prescribed by the United States Environment Protection Agency. According to Kalpana Balakrishnan, director of health ministry's Centre for Advanced Research on Environmental Health and a contributor to the GBD study, about one million lives can be saved every year by replacing all solid fuels for cooking with LPG.