Rising air pollution can cut life expectancy by more than five years per person in South Asia, one of the world’s most polluted regions, according to a report which flagged the growing burden of hazardous air on health.

Air pollution is the greatest threat to human health in India and the average Indian resident is set to lose five years of life expectancy if the WHO guidelines are not followed, according to this new report by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC).

The average Indonesian can expect to lose 2.5 years of life expectancy at current pollution levels, according to the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI), because air quality fails to meet the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline for concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5).

More than 480 million people living in the vast swathes of central, eastern and northern India, including the capital, New Delhi, endure significantly high pollution levels, said the report prepared by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC).

Indians would have lived 4.3 years longer if the 2016 air quality met the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) annual safe air quality guideline of 10 micrograms per cubic metre, according to this new report