India’s polluted air claimed 1.24 million lives in 2017: study

India’s polluted air claimed 1.24 million lives in 2017: study
Indian commuters drive in heavy smog along a busy road past the South Extension area of New Delhi on Dec. 6, 2018. Xavier Galiana/AFP/Getty Images
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NEW DELHI—India’s toxic air claimed 1.24 million lives in 2017, or 12.5 percent of total deaths recorded that year, according to a study published in Lancet Planetary Health on Dec. 6.

More than 51 percent of the people who died because of air pollution were younger than 70, said the study conducted by academics and scientists from various institutions in India and around the world.