Premature mortality attributable to PM2.5 exposure and future policy roadmap for ‘airpocalypse’ affected Asian megacities

Fine particulate matter, PM2.5 has been associated with significant health effects including cardiovascular diseases, lung diseases, cancer and premature deaths. The PM2.5-related health impacts are notable for megacities across the globe, but Asian megacities have been suffering much more. The Phenomenon of smog-hit cities became so common recently that the term ‘airpocalypse’ has become synonymous with polluted air. This study reports PM2.5-related long-term mortality for the year 2016 in 13 megacities of China, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan using an integrated exposure risk (IER) model. This study assesses the mortality associated with health outcomes attributable to PM2.5 particularly: cerebrovascular disease (stroke, CEV), ischemic heart disease (IHD), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer (LC) among adults (≥25years) and the acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) for infants (