New Delhi: Courtesy a mix of smoke and fog (smog) which has engulfed the national capital, Delhi has become a gas chamber. The toxic smog is choking people with the air quality index in the city falling under the hazardous category.
As noxious haze hanging over the national capital thickened, Delhi government on Tuesday closed down all schools in order to prevent students from being affected by poor air quality.
However, Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Friday that one could not launch “surgical strikes” against pollution. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was monitoring the situation, but added that a solution has to be found by the states.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO), air pollution in India is estimated to kill 1.5 million people every year. It is the fifth largest killer in the country. India also has the world’s highest death rate from chronic respiratory diseases and asthma. In Delhi, poor quality air damages irreversibly the lungs of 2.2 million or 50 per cent of all children.
In November 2016, in an event known as the ‘Great Smog of Delhi’, the air pollution spiked far beyond acceptable levels. Levels of PM2.5 and PM10 particulate matter hit 999 micrograms per cubic meter, while the safe limits for those pollutants are 60 and 100 respectively.
Air pollution effects can be broken down into short-term effects and long-term effects. Short-term effects, which are temporary, include illnesses such as pneumonia or bronchitis. They also include discomfort such as irritation to the nose, throat, eyes, or skin. Air pollution can also cause headaches, dizziness, and nausea.
Long-term health effects can include chronic respiratory disease, lung cancer, heart disease, and even damage to the brain, nerves, liver, or kidneys. Continual exposure to air pollution affects the lungs of growing children and may aggravate or complicate medical conditions in the elderly.
According to health experts, inhaling toxic air triggers a plethora of respiratory and cardiac problems.
The director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Dr Randeep Guleria, explains the short and long term effects of air pollution.
“Delhi and its adjoining areas are dealing with high levels of air pollution causing some long term and serious health hazards that may include respiratory illnesses, lung cancer, stroke, cardiovascular disease, congestion, etc. In the short term, people might experience breathing difficulties and tightness in chest. Even in healthy individuals, air pollution can cause cough, wheezing, headache and buzzing in the head. The people who already suffer from conditions like asthma, their symptoms aggravate,” Dr Guleria told Gulf News.
Health experts believe people living in areas of high air pollution are most likely have weakened bones or fractures due to osteoporosis.
“A study conducted by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health analysed data on more than nine million people enrolled in Medicare in Northeastern US and found a link between traffic fumes and fractures caused by osteoporosis. Researchers found that such cases were majorly seen in communities with elevated levels of tiny atmospheric particles called PM2.5s. They are particularly harmful as they are so small they can penetrate deep into the body. They are mainly found in vehicle exhausts,” says Delhi-based respiratory diseases specialist Dr Manish Sharma.
Meanwhile, in an important development, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) rapped the Delhi government for announcing the reintroduction of the ‘odd-even’ car rationing scheme despite reports from Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) that it was ineffective.
On Friday, it directed the government to produce details of ambient air quality during earlier odd-even schemes. It said the government should not implement the odd-even scheme unless it established that the scheme was not counterproductive.
Vehicle emissions main culprit
New Delhi: Motor vehicle emissions are considered the major reason for poor air quality in Delhi. According to some reports, 80 per cent of PM2.5 air pollution is caused by vehicular traffic, though other surveys suggest the percentage is lower. Other causes include wood-burning fires, fires on agricultural land, exhaust from diesel generators, dust from construction sites, and burning garbage.
Badarpur Thermal Power Station, a coal-fired power plant built in 1973, is another major source of air pollution in Delhi. Despite producing less than 8 per cent of the city’s electric power, it produces 80 to 90 per cent of the particulate matter pollution from the electric power sector in Delhi. During the Great Smog of Delhi in November 2016, the Badarpur Power Plant was temporarily shut down to alleviate the acute air pollution, but was allowed to restart on February 1, 2017.
'Delhi needs a CEO to monitor air pollution'
New Delhi: As the smog refused to abate and the air quality index (AQI) stood at 493 on Friday, Delhi officially hit the ‘severe plus’ category of air pollution.
The Supreme Court-constituted body — the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) — announced the emergency category of ‘severe plus’ according to its Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).
“The situation as it exists today is the worst that I have seen in my 30 years in Delhi. The situation today is a state of public health emergency. If you want to protect the people, we should be ordering partial evacuation of Delhi. Closing down schools and offices will not work. The situation is beyond anyone’s control now,” Delhi-based environmentalist Ashok Saxena told Gulf News.
A month ago, EPCA had announced that Delhi was in the “very poor” category. Prominent environmentalist and head of the Centre for Science and Environment, Sunita Narain, had said the effort was to stop Delhi reaching the emergency levels seen in 2016.
On Friday, Narain, a member of EPCA, said, “The situation is very alarming at this point of time and tough measures are required. We have been demanding drastic action to control the runaway air pollution problem. We must act because it is a serious public health question.”
Environmentalists believe there is a need for a long-term plan to reduce emissions.
“If the long-term measures already identified and suggested by experts and environmentalists, particularly EPCA, are not implemented, air quality cannot improve in Delhi and its adjoining areas,” Saxena added.
Jyoti Pande, president of Care for Air — an NGO fighting for clean air, says Delhi needs a ‘CEO for air’.
“We don’t need advisory bodies, we don’t need technical authorities. What we need is an enforcing authority. Someone has to be held accountable for the situation. Why can’t there be a CEO of air, like we had E. Sreedharan take charge of Delhi Metro and Nandan Nilekani perform the difficult task of implementing the Aadhaar scheme?” Pande told media.
