If other air pollutants were considered, the number of premature deaths may well be of the order of more than 3 lakhs/year; which is still well below the 10 lakh/annum estimate made for environmental exposures alone.

Statistics or estimates of health effects due to environmental exposures are virtually non-existent in India . The Kamat study, the first and almost only study of its kind done in India , found that there was approximately 15% excess illness in highly polluted areas of Mumbai in the late-1970s.

The Central Pollution Control Board's latest release of air quality data indicates that 68 out of 70 of India 's major urban areas, accounting for 25% of India 's population, are at the same or over the pollution level classified as high by the Kamat study. That translates to 37.5 million air pollution-related excess illness episodes per year.

The estimated annual monetary loss due to environmental SPM-exposure related fatalities and illnesses, according to the DTE report, was Rs 4,500 crore (the cost of a 2,000 MW power plant) for 36 cities. If the same costing norms are applied for workplace and other environmental health effects, the annual monetary loss would be of the order of Rs 30,000 crore per annum, ie, one-tenth the 2000-01 union government's budget.