About 3,500 Indians and Chinese will die of aircraft pollution this year

The harmful pollutants emitted by an aircraft at an altitude of 35,000 feet
are fatal for people, says a study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology (EST).

The report reads that almost 8,000 people will die due to aircraft
pollutants this year, and nearly 3,500 of them will be from India and China. Experts
say this means people exposed to such pollutants will also suffer from
respiratory diseases.

The report by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) says that nitrogen
and sulphur oxides emitted by aircraft at approximately 35,000 feet combine
with other gases in the atmosphere to create noxious particulate matter.

The study points out that more than the northern hemisphere, which has high
commercial aviation activity, Indians and Chinese are at the receiving end of
these pollutants.

‘Even though the amount of fuel burned by aircraft over India and China
accounts for only 10 per cent of the estimated total amount of fuel burned by
aircraft across the globe, the two countries incur nearly half (about 3,500) of
the annual deaths related to aircraft emissions,’ the study states.

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