Air pollution is one of the biggest threats to humankind today. It causes 9 million premature deaths worldwide every year, with significant costs to the economy and quality of life. The economic burden of air pollution in India is estimated at Rs 7 lakh crore (US $95 billion) annually, according to a recent study conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industry along with other organisations. Common causes of air pollution include industrial and vehicular emissions, burning of fuel or coal for domestic or industrial purposes, and stubble burning.
Fortunately, Indian states and the central government have taken numerous initiatives to reduce air pollution. These include conducting source apportionment studies to understand how different sectors contribute to air pollution, accelerating the shift to renewable energy, regulatory fines, and closure of polluting industries, etc. There has been progress, but there is a good deal of work to be done.
Awareness of air quality is still at a nascent stage in India. The common phrase we hear from people outside of Delhi is “But our air is not as bad as Delhi,” when oftentimes they are breathing air that is far worse than Delhi. Unless you live in Andaman or Nicobar, the air you are breathing exceeds World Health Organization standards for clean air. Sometimes people tell us, “But I’ve been breathing this polluted air my entire life and nothing has happened to me.” Perhaps. But the millions of Indians who die from air pollution each year – and their families – would disagree with you.
The association between air pollution and death due to COVID-19 is by now well understood. But when I moved to Bangalore from the USA in 2008 as a bright young cardiologist working at a top charity hospital, the science of air pollution and health was just getting started. I was shocked to see how air pollution was hitting so many young people – taxi drivers and cobblers in their 20s and 30s admitted (and sometimes dying) with heart attacks from polluted air. I wondered how many angioplasty operations I could do, and if it would make a dent in the air pollution deaths, we saw every week.
Today, air purifiers are commonly available in the market, but most focus on indoor air quality in a single room. Outdoor air purifiers – the kind that use fans to blow air across filters – don’t work well, and at best address an area the size of a tennis court. That’s not enough to make a dent in air quality for industries and cities.
The market for air pollution control equipment is growing 12% year on year. The traditional drivers for growth include increasingly stringent government regulations, growing awareness about the hazards of air pollution, etc. The COVID pandemic has been a surprising driver for growth, since research has shown there to be an association between increased air pollution and greater severity and fatality owing to COVID. An increasing number of industries are choosing sustainability measures and adopting large-scale air pollution control.
Devic Earth’s flagship product Pure Skies, launched after a decade of research, is specially meant for addressing air quality for large areas. Pure Skies works through a unique pulsed radio wave technology. It is filter-less, hassle-free and can address a radius of up to 3 kilometres. It is installed like Wi-Fi routers, around a property or industry, creating a point-to-point network across the entire premises. It accelerates the natural process of the clearance of particulate matter (PM) and the formation of dry deposition. It reduces PM2.5 and PM10 by 33-90% across industries. So far, we have done 100+ installations in India, primarily in B2B, and are planning to expand abroad. Additionally, Pure Skies is also offered through our subscription programme, “Clean Air as A Service.”
We’ve helped scores of industries of all sizes clean the air at their facilities – both indoors and outdoors. Over the years, we’ve learned a couple of lessons along the way. First, companies that invest in clean air as part of their sustainability initiatives do better – not just in terms of better productivity and employee health, but also enjoy a better bottom line. It’s an open secret that companies with strong sustainability practices are more likely to win, and several recent studies have confirmed our observation.
Technology can help industries and cities clean the air we breathe. Whether it is hyperlocal monitoring of air pollution levels, or unique products like ours which clean the air over large areas, technological solutions can bring valuable information and interventions to air quality. They can be particularly useful when air pollution levels are particularly extreme, like during the crop burning season, or in mitigating hard to control pollutants such as fugitive emissions in industries.
The first step to clean air is always reducing air pollution at the source. Incentives for clean air installations, renewable energy, phasing out old and polluting vehicles, and encouraging energy efficiency will not only optimise air quality but also safeguard health and a sound economy.
Dr Srikanth Sola is the Director, CEO and Co-founder of Devic Earth.