According to a new research, air pollution has reached a critical level in India and has merged as the fifth largest cause of death in the country.

A study in the medical journal 'Lancet' showed that 6.2 lakh million premature deaths, which is an increase of six times since 2000. 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. An 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.