India Steel Plants Lack SO2 Standards, Costing Children Health

India has no national sulphur dioxide emission standards for key steel plant units, including sinter plants and refractory material facilities, according to a health impact assessment by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. The Bokaro SAIL steel plant in Jharkhand alone is estimated to cause 270 low birthweight births and 25 new child asthma cases annually, with an economic burden of approximately US$80 million per year.

CREA's assessment of the Bokaro SAIL plant — one of India's oldest integrated steel facilities — found that its stack emissions in FY2023 led to an estimated 170 adult deaths from PM2.5 and NO2 exposure, 290 asthma-related emergency room visits, and roughly 123,000 days of work absence annually. The economic cost of those absences is estimated at approximately US$79 million (Rs 640 crore) in 2023. Only two of six sinter stack ducts have efficient electrostatic precipitators; the rest rely on outdated cyclone dust collectors.

India's steel sector, classified as one of 17 highly polluting industries by the Central Pollution Control Board, has a current capacity of nearly 200 million tonnes per year with plans to scale to 300 million tonnes by 2030. India also accounts for 57 per cent of all coal-based steelmaking capacity under development globally. Despite a 2014 CPCB mandate for Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems in highly polluting industries, CEMS implementation remains incomplete more than a decade later, with historical data largely absent from the public domain.

CREA analysts argue the Bokaro case illustrates a nationwide regulatory gap that will worsen as India expands steelmaking capacity. The organisation calls for national SO2 emission standards for all steel plant stack types, full deployment of CEMS with publicly accessible data, and a shift toward cleaner production routes. Lauri Myllyvirta of CREA said technological progress makes the 'pollute now, clean up later' model indefensible. Analysts Anubha Aggarwal stressed that regulation must precede further capacity expansion to prevent additional environmental and public health damage.

Key figure — US$80 million annual economic burden from Bokaro plant emissions