Air pollution in the Indian capital of Delhi has reached extraordinarily high levels, equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, the nation’s doctors and public health experts warned this week.
Air pollution in the Indian capital of Delhi has reached extraordinarily high levels, equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, the nation’s doctors and public health experts warned this week.
On Tuesday, concentrations of fine air pollutants, known as PM 2.5, reached 710 micrograms per cubic meter, more than 11 times the World Health Organization’s safe limit, The Guardian reported. Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, said the city “has become a gas chamber,” and the government has urged city residents to stay inside their homes. The Indian Medical Association described the smog levels as a “public health emergency,” and called for a half-marathon race scheduled for November 19 to be canceled to avoid “disastrous health consequences.”
Read more at Yale Environment 360
