A new study has found, cleaner air could help in prevention up to 1.4 million of premature deaths a year in the polluted countries like India and China. The study also warned that in the next 15 years with no changes in air pollution, the deaths per capita would increase by 20 to 30 percent in both the countries.

"When we found the importance of cleaning air not in the dirtiest parts of the world as expected, we were surprised and also expected to find cleaner environment in the countries like US, Canada and Europe," said, Mr Julian Marshall, University of Minnesota, and a co-author of the study which was published by 'Environmental Science & Technology Journal'.

Mr Marshall and his research team found that meeting the World Health Organization's (WHO) particular guidelines on air quality would prevent 2.1 million deaths per year, areas with dirtier air in India, China and Russia.

In addition, target focused in less-polluted regions probably would reduce premature deaths from outdoor pollution by more than half a million in a year.

"We eagerly wanted to determine on how much cleaner in different parts of the world would need to reduce death substantially from Particular Matter (PM),' said Mr Joshua S Apte, Cockrell School of Engineering, University of Texas Austin, and a lead author of this study published in the journal of 'Environmental Science & Technology'.

Mr Apte and his group of researchers have looked at outdoor air pollution from PM smaller than 2.5 microns. These particles could enter deep into the lungs, caused due to burning of coal in coal-fired power plants, from car exhausts and emissions from industrial surroundings.

In the lower-income part of countries, these further causes from coal fires, wood fires, and other burning homes and cooking. Breathing PM was basically associated with increased risk of cardiac diseases like heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular (CV) diseases.

Another important findings was that due to the ageing populations, health risks in many other countries would increase the pollution levels if it remained constant for a longer time.