India to publish pollution data of U.S., Europe over controversial WHO report

India will publish air pollution data of major cities in the United States and Europe after terming the latest World Health Organization (WHO) report on air pollution "misleading", local media reported Thursday.

The Times of India quoted Indian environment minister Prakash Javadekar as saying Wednesday that India would soon come out with air pollution data of major cities across the U.S. and Europe so that people know the whole picture.

The move is not to counter but to create awareness of the situation in other countries, he said.

Referring to the report which listed 30 Indian cities among the 100 most polluted cities in the world, Javadekar said the WHO report had not factored in various key pollutants like sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and benzene while analysing air quality.

He wondered why western countries focused more on India and some other nations and not on themselves.

The WHO report, which is based on 2012-13 data, was prepared taking into consideration PM (particulate matter) 10 and PM 2.5.

To categorize cities as polluted based on only PM 2.5 was misleading, as there were eight other major pollutants which had adverse impact on health, said the Indian official. Endit