CHAIR-India

CHAIR-INDIA

Linking Air Pollution and Climate Change with Health in India

About Us

CHAIR-India: Climate, Health, and Air Pollution research in India

This international multidisciplinary consortium, funded by FORMAS (Sweden) aims to estimate daily fine particulate matter pollution (PM_2.5)) and ambient air temperature at 1×1 km across India between 2008-2020 using spatiotemporal machine learning models.

CHAIR-India will link environmental data to health datasets, and study associations of short and long-term air pollution and temperature with mortality and cardiometabolic and respiratory disease in rural and urban areas across India. The project further aims to foster public awareness, collaboration and policy change by providing an interactive tool and engage multiple stakeholders and end users.

More about the project

Joint study by
CHAIR INDIA, Ashoka University,
& global partners, published in
The LANCET Planetary Health

The study reveals a critical health risk associated with air pollution. This comprehensive multi-city study demonstrates a significant link between short-term PM2.5 exposure and increased mortality rates in India. Accounted for a diverse air quality profile across 10 Indian cities and demonstrates for the first time that the risk of mortality is significant even at lower levels of air pollution. The insights signal an urgent need to revisit our air quality management strategies that currently focus only on ‘non-attainment cities’, rethink current air quality standards accounting for the lower risk thresholds, and shift from addressing regional to local sources to effectively protect human health”, said Dr. Poornima Prabhakaran, Director of the Centre for Health Analytics Research and Trends (CHART) at the Trivedi School of Biosciences, Ashoka University and India lead of the CHAIR-India consortium.

Characteristics from our nationwide PM_2.5 spatio-temporal model across India

3687499

Number of grid cells

128

Number of predictors included in the spatiotemporal model

1300

Number of PM_2.5 monitoring stations in India

4749

Prediction Days

In Partnership with

entre for Health Analytics Research and Trends, Trivedi School of Biosciences, Ashoka University

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Centre for Chornic Disease Control India

Boston University School of Public Health

Environmental exposure model

We developed a nation-wide exposure model for daily ambient PM_2.5 and ambient temperature from 2008-2020 at a spatial resolution of 1 km x 1 km in India

Health associations studies

We will link our PM_2.5 and temperature estimates to health data to quantify the associations between PM_2.5 and ambient temperature, on mortality, cardiometabolic outcomes, and lung function outcomes.

Online environmental exposure data tool:

We will create a public website with environmental data that can be used by planners, policymakers, and the general public

Communications and stakeholders' strategy

We will engage with key stakeholders to increase the efficiency of the project, disseminate results well beyond the scientific community and facilitate translation of the project deliverables into policy action.

Environmental Exposure Data model

We will create an open source and access webtool for environmental data for stakeholders, academics and the general public. We will make available for research all the data collected and processed during the project. Static and interactive data visualization resources will be available soon!

Publications & Resources

Find more information about our latest publications, poster and oral presentation at national and international conferences, and other relevant resources related to the CHAIR-India project.

Know More

CHAIR-India

CHAIR-INDIA

About Us

CHAIR-India: Climate, Health, and Air Pollution research in India

Joint study by
CHAIR INDIA, Ashoka University,
& global partners, published in
The LANCET Planetary Health