Dangerous air pollution in India forces Delhi schools to close for 2nd time in 2 weeks – “I cannot play outside because the air is too toxic to breathe”
DELHI, 15 November 2019 (CBS News) – The air pollution in India’s capital got so bad again this week that the government was forced to close schools. It was the second time in two weeks. The air has been choked with a concentration of noxious pollutants about 10-times higher than what’s considered safe by the World Health Organization.
The smog is so thick and the levels of toxins so high that it’s a health threat not just for children, the elderly and those with underlying health problems, but for every single person exposed to the deadly air. India’s pollution control authority ordered all schools in Delhi and its suburbs shuttered on both Thursday and Friday. All industries running on coal and other fossil fuels were also asked to stay closed.
The timing this week was poignant. Children in the capital were stuck at home on November 14, celebrated every year in India as “Children’s Day.”
Some students wrote open letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that were picked up by Indian media.
“I used to enjoy soccer earlier but now I can only enjoy it on TV,” student Ishan Mahant said in his letter to the country’s leader. “I cannot play outside because the air is too toxic to breathe.”
The government was to decide on Monday whether to extend the two-week car rationing system that was put in place to halve the number of vehicles on Delhi’s roads. The weekday restrictions, which allow cars with odd and even number license plates on the roads only on alternating days, were implemented when the pollution first spiked to record levels about 10 days ago.
The human impact
The air in Delhi is choked with smoke, largely from farm fires in neighboring states, and industrial and vehicle pollution. The levels of particulate matter — the tiny molecules that float around in the air and then get caught in people’s lungs — have been measured at nearly 10-times the safe limit.
People have complained of difficulty breathing, burning eyes, headaches, and other symptoms for two weeks.
More patients continue to pour into Delhi’s busy National Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases every day. Most, if not all of the patients at the hospital are there thanks, at least in part, to the pollution.
Savitri Devi, 70, who suffers from asthma, was admitted earlier this month for emergency treatment.
“She suffered chronic breathlessness soon after Diwali (27 October 2019),” her daughter, Kiran Kashyap, told CBS News. “The asthma device (bronchodialator) didn’t help at all, so we had to bring her to the hospital.”
Another patient, Lakhiya Devi, 55, started feeling breathless after arriving in Delhi from another state to visit her daughter.
“It felt like entering a room filled with smoke,” Devi told CBS News. She was admitted a week ago and doctors have been giving her oxygen. “I am feeling much better now,” she said on Thursday. [more]
Dangerous air pollution in India forces Delhi schools to close for 2nd time in 2 weeks
