Data linking death with air pollution inconclusive, says Indian minister

Environment minister Anil Madhav Dave overlooks Greenpeace research stating 1.2m Indians die each year from airborne pollutants

India's environment minister has been accused of playing down the health risks of the country's extremely polluted air by claiming, contrary to research, that there is no conclusive data available linking "death exclusively with air pollution".

The environmental group Greenpeace released a report in January citing Global Burden of Disease (GBD) research that estimated nearly 1.2 million Indians die each year due to high concentrations of airborne pollutants such as dust, mould spores, arsenic, lead, nickel and the carcinogen chromium.