Respiratory infections are the most common chronic disease of children globally, are a leading cause of death in developing countries and make a large contribution to the overall burden of disease as measured by disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost. The disability-adjusted life year (DALY) is a measure of overall disease burden, expressed as the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death. Air pollution is a recognized contributor to respiratory disease, as airborne fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from the burning of solid fuels, vehicle exhaust, windblown soil, construction and other sources can penetrate deep into lung tissue. PM2.5 refers to atmospheric particulate matter (PM) that have a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers, which is about 3 percent the diameter of a human hair. PM2.5 exposure has been linked to increased asthma-related emergency-room visits and hospitalizations, greater chronic obstructive pulmonary disease mortality and reduced life expectancy.
As mentioned before, Delhi is the most polluted city in the world. Press here if you want to see our first blog about pollution in Delhi. Air pollution in Delhi is particularly extreme during the winter months, a period when farmers in the neighbouring upwind states of Haryana and Punjab, where the burden of outdoor air pollution is also high, practise agricultural crop-residue burning (ACRB). Banned in November 2015 by the National Green Tribunal, ACRB is still widely practised due to weak enforcement of the ban, political economy issues and lack of alternatives to burning among poor farmers. In Punjab alone, an estimated 44 to 51 million metric tonnes of residue are burned each year, with rice being the primary source. Winds carry suspended particles hundreds of miles, generating a thick cloud of smog above northern India visible by satellite.
Recently, the contribution of ACRB in northwestern India to air pollution in Delhi has been quantified, with estimates ranging between 7 percent and 78 percent of PM2.5 enhancements during the burning season being attributable to ACRB. Moreover, previous work has shown that ACRB results in an unrecoverable decrease in pulmonary function among children aged 10 to 13 years. Among different sources of outdoor air pollution, ACRB was responsible for an estimated 66.200 deaths in 2015 in India. In addition to affecting human health, ACRB deteriorates soil fertility, releases greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming and results in the loss of biodiversity.
The Indian government has demonstrated an interest in combatting air pollution and respiratory illness but so far has fallen short in addressing the air-quality crisis. India was the first country to develop national targets aimed at reducing deaths from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) including respiratory illness, by 2025, following the WHO’s Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs 2013–2020. However, a major barrier to further political action against crop burning is the lack of rigorous evidence linking this practice to health outcomes. To our knowledge, there are no available estimates of the economic costs and societal disease burden associated with crop burning.
South East Asia 
Hi all!
First of all, I believe the issue of crop burning is very interesting and relevant. As you explained, not much is being done to address the problem in India. I was wondering if there are countries, within or outside of Southeast Asia, that are dealing with similar issues, and how these countries address it. You also mentioned that ACRB deteriorates soil fertility. I was wondering if you could explain this to me, since I assumed that the point of crop burning would be to enhance soil fertility.
Thanks in advance,
Marieke de Sévaux
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Dear Group,
I found your post about crop burning very interesting to read, as it shows how pollution does not only originate from modern industry, but also very basic farming techniques such as crop burning. What struck me most, is that even though there are estimates ranging up to 78%, when it comes to the contribution of crop burning to PM2.5 enhancements, there still seems to be lacking research and evidence collection to make comprehensive policies against it. Also, farmers seem to need alternatives for burning, which, as you say, the poor ones often do not have. I was wondering if there is any record of investments being made into developing other options for farmers besides burning? What might some affordable/effective alternatives to burning be?
Kind regars,
Lydia
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Dear group of Southeast Asia,
My advice for your blog is to make it a bit more visual. You could add some images, to make your messages clearer. You also made a link to one of your previous blogs about pollution in Delhi, unfortunately, the link is not working yet.
I was wondering, how big the economic impact of those crop burnings is for India. I can imagine that they lost a lot of income when such accidents take place. Is there a direct link between economic decline and the increase of air pollution in Southeast Asia, and especially in India?
Kindly regards,
Tharsini
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Dear group,
Firstly, very interesting blog post in which you are targeting an important part of the problem of your double burden of disease. I was actually really surprised and shocked by the impact of crop residue burning on air pollution and indirectly on respiratory infectious diseases.
I understand as you mentioned that the crisis of crop residue burning will not be simply resolved, but that does not change the fact that has to be resolved. So I was wondering if the government has already invested in offering farmers alternative crop residue disposal solutions. This would probably stop them from burning crop residues and would improve the population-level respiratory health and the economic burden. Moreover, I was curious if you have any ideas yourself on how the problem of agricultural crop-residue burning could be tackled.
Secondly, in response to Marieke, I read an article about air pollution through crop residue burning in Asia that mentioned that; This year, according to reports, 2,620 incidents of crop fire were spotted via satellite in Indian Punjab. In Pakistan, the number was limited to just 27. Though the problem of crop burning has existed in both countries for decades, it seems Pakistan has been able to tackle it far better than India. So maybe you could take Pakistan as an example to look at how they controlled the burden of crop residue burning.
Thirdly, I had one more suggestion. In your post you mention “Press here if you want to see our first blog about pollution in Delhi”, but there is no hyperlink to this blog, so make sure you add this. Moreover, I could not find your references, this is something you could also add to your post in case people want to read more about a specific topic.
Lastly, I enjoyed reading your blog, so keep up the good work!
Kind regards,
Julia Schellekens
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Dear Max, nice article. I like the choice of your topic. Since the resulting health effects of activities such as crop burning often go unnoticed. The measurements are now painting a clear picture.
Though I was wondering if you know anything about the political response to the matter at hand?
In addition, are there any signs you are aware of which indicate a policy change to agricultural protocols in relation to the climate requirements India has to comply to?
Thank you!
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