Winter Smog Shrouds Delhi; Air Pollution Readings 10X WHO Air Quality Recs
It happens every winter in India’s sprawling capital: the cold air arrives, trapping the dust and other pollutants emitted by its 20 million residents. The result? A filthy, choking haze that engulfs the city and halts daily life.
For the third day this week, air quality in the city passed the “severe” threshold, reaching 445 on Friday, India’s Ministry of Earth Sciences said. The figure is 10 times the target level established in the World Health Organization’s 2021 air quality guidelines, which advises a 24-hour mean of 45. As the smog descended on Delhi and the surrounding areas, officials on Friday ordered schools, factories and construction sites closed and banned diesel trucks from bringing nonessential goods to the capital. About half of the city’s government employees were urged to work from home.
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People jog as New Delhi is engulfed in heavy smog on Thursday. Indian officials on Friday shut down factories, construction sites and primary schools in the city as the air pollution reached dangerous levels. (Rajat Gupta/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
The WHO estimates that millions die annually due to air pollution, and recognizes it as the world’s largest environmental health threat. IQAir, a Swiss air quality company, ranked New Delhi as the most polluted capital in 2021. Air pollution has been linked to heart diseases, a higher risk of stroke and lung cancer, and in 2019 was the leading cause of death in India, according to government data.
Siddharth Singh, the author of “The Great Smog of India,” tweeted that, unlike immunity developed from a virus or a vaccine, “the human body cannot get used to air pollution,” as “the particulate matter enters your lungs, your bloodstream, and then lodges itself in your organs.” Both the state and federal governments in India have faced criticism for failing to tackle the air pollution problem. And as the crisis mounted this week, regional politicians tried to blame each other for the health hazard.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/04/new-delhi-air-pollution-smog/