Gasping Yet? Skip Your Morning Jogs If You Want to Keep Breathing

Exploding lungs, cancer and heart diseases – in the battle against pollution, why does Delhi always lose?

Delhi can no longer afford to ignore the air pollution problem it is waking up to! (Photo: Reuters)

Delhi is shrouded in a sickening, soupy, silver haze. Currently, the level of air pollution in the capital is unprecedented.

Yet, last year an evocative opinion piece on the impact of hazardous levels of pollution in the capital by New York Times’ South Asia Correspondent, upset many Indians. Turns out Gardiner Harris, the journalist who shifted back to Washington to save his son’s ailing lungs, was quite right and quite wise.

Post this Diwali and post the miserable failure of the anti-cracker campaign, Delhiites are collectively gasping for breath.

More than two days after Diwali, the toxic PM 2.5 concentrations are still about 315 micrograms/metre cube concentration in Delhi, 12 times worse than the standard set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

FYI, the WHO recommends that PM 2.5 is kept below 10 as an annual average. Exposure to average annual concentrations of PM 2.5 of 35 or above is linked with a 15% higher long-term death risk. How’s that for a Diwali horror story?

This Is What Delhi Is Currently Waking Up To

This poisonous gas inflames the lung lining and is a leading cause for wheezing, coughing, colds, flu and bronchitis. (Photo: Reuters)

The city’s air quality index (AQI) has reached 318. An AQI of more than 300 is considered very poor. (Photo: AP)

Pollution was already at a dangerously high level in the Capital before Diwali. Last October, the AQI did not fall to “very poor” levels even for a single day, while this year it was “very poor” or “severe” on 8 days. (Photo: AP)

Here’s What This Choking Pollution Is Doing To You

Delhi chokes on toxic pollution around the year, Diwali firecrackers aren’t the cause, they make it worse each year. (Photo: The Quint)

One WHO study estimated that fine particulates are the direct cause of more than 5 percent lung cancer deaths worldwide. That means 8 lakh people lose their lives every year because of the air they breathe.

There are a lot of studies which show that heart patients can get fresh attacks, it can worsen asthma and other breathing ailments in healthy people, reduce your lungs’ ability to take in oxygen, make it fatal for people suffering from COPD.

The fine particulate matter in the capital’s air can lodge in your lungs, where they are absorbed by the blood and lung vessels, potentially causing heart disease and cancer. (Photo: The Quint)

A study on the pollution-health link done in Beijing, also notorious for toxic smog found that when air pollution was curtailed during the 2008 Olympics, residents became considerably healthier. Several biomarkers in their blood associated with heart diseases dropped dramatically.

The study estimated that if these anti-pollution measures were taken permanently, the lifetime risk of lung cancer for the Chinese would be cut in HALF – a risk that has spiked by a whopping 56 percent in the last decade, even as smoking rates have come down dramatically.

The horror of Diwali pollution isn’t going to tide over in a day or two, the November nip in the air and the low wind speed is continuing to extend the suspension of such pollutants near the ground.

Now you can’t stop breathing, migrate to Antarctica, or be chained inside your air purified homes till the city clears up the haze, so what precautions should you take?

Also Read: Three Days After Diwali, Pollution Levels Remain Severe

Can’t Live Under a Rock During Bad Air Days? Here’s How You Can Cope With Delhi’s Dirty Air

Stay indoors as much as possible but since offices don’t give pollution leaves, not yet, so:

1. Invest In a Good Quality Face Mask

Masks, though less popular in India, are the default means of mass protection against air pollution in cities like Beijing and Shanghai with equally noxious air. (Photo: iStock)

With the winter setting in, it’s going to be tough months for your lungs in the capital. Buy a good quality pollution mask, the one that seals your face, comes with an active carbon layer, a valve which opens and shuts as you exhale and inhale. Try Vogmask, 3M or N95 but don’t order these online because you need to be sure of the fitting, if it’s leaving a gap against your face, it’s pretty useless. Needless to say, the Rs 5 cloth mask doesn’t cut it, so don’t bother using that one.

2. Air Purifiers Work – Invest In Them Only If You Can Cover the Whole House

Air purifiers are available from Rs 3,000 to a whopping Rs 90,000. Their sales have been growing at 50% per year in India (Photo: The Quint)

If you can afford the installation and electric cost of putting air purifiers in your whole house, nothing like it. If not, it’s pretty useless to buy one bulky purifier for the living room and breathe toxic air in the rest of the house.

3. Don’t Exercise, Limit Outdoor Activity

Those pictures you see of people braving the thick smog of nearly zero visibility but still continuing with their morning jog? That’s not being fitness conscious, that’s being stupid. The damage which pollution can do to your body is much worse than the benefits of exercise. Children and elderly should especially watch out!

4. Use Apps To Stay Updated

Usually a look outside your window will give you an idea of how good or bad things are, but don’t rely sorely on your judgement. The current noxious air is predicted to linger this whole week but stay updated with apps like SAFAR, Change the Air, and avoid outdoors if it’s crazy toxic.

I have friends who drive to nearby ‘cleaner’ areas from the capital during many weekends. See if this is doable. They say, it’s to ‘wash the lungs’.

Related Read: Air Quality 'Severe' In Delhi, Post Diwali