New Delhi: A new study conducted by experts from IIT-Delhi and Ashoka University says that exposure to extremely high levels of biomass burning early in life can affect the height of adolescents in the country. The study, which has been published in ‘Resource and Energy Economics’, stated that that high-intensity biomass burning is associated with lower adolescent height for teenage girls in India. “We find that girls who were exposed to extremely high levels of biomass burning during their early life have lower height by −1.07 cm or a decrease of 0.7 percent,” said the study. “The underlying non-pollution mechanisms at play suggest reduced labor supply, reduced consumption of food items like milk and cereals and increased sickness in the households as revealed by higher medical expenditures in response to an increase in fire-activity.”