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GEOHealth India Hub 
 

A fully integrated research and training program aimed at understanding health effects of air pollution and extremes of temperature with policy relevance

to improve health of Indians.​

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Mission

  • To accelerate scientific infrastructure development, enhance capacity, and support the research needed to fully characterize the relationship between air pollution, extremes of temperature and health effects in India.

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  • To build a critical core of environmental health researchers in India that will help develop the evidence base for health-centric policy-making across sectors.

Highlights

Hypertension and Fine particulate matter
pollution in Delhi 

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  • Strong effects of fine particulate matter exposure on blood pressure (BP) as well as risk of developing hypertension.

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  • Observed higher average systolic BP in monthly and annual exposures.

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  • Positive but less pronounced associations were observed for diastolic blood pressure.

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  • Average PM2.5 over durations of 1 year, 1.5 years, and 2 years increased the risk of developing hypertension by 1.5× (50% higher risk) 1.6× (60% higher risk), and 1.2× (20% higher risk), respectively.

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  • Results were stronger in study participants with higher waist-to-hip ratios, which is an indicator of central obesity.

Exposure to polluted air is associated with

an increased risk of type-2 diabetes

  • The study found stronger effects of increased fasting plasma glucose [0.51mg/dl (95% CI: -0.36, 1.39)] and glycosylated haemoglobin [0.03 unit (95% CI: 0.01, 0.06)] in Chennai compared to Delhi.

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  • The risk of developing type 2 diabetes increased with longer durations of exposure, with the highest risk in Chennai compared to Delhi.

 

  • The median PM2.5 (IQR) annual concentrations were 40.2 μg/m3 (37.5, 42.7) in Chennai and 101.5 μg/m3 (92.2, 119.8) in Delhi over the duration of the study.

 

  • These results were also found to be stronger in study participants with higher body mass index, participants with high blood pressure [hypertensives] and younger participants in Delhi.

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