Dear Environment Minister, Stop Denying The Seriousness of Smog

Our environment minister, Dr Harshvardhan, doesn’t believe the pollution in Delhi constitutes an emergency.

Can we afford to deny the current environmental situation in Delhi as an emergency?

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Finding ways to ditch your friend’s wedding in Delhi, cause Dilli abhi kaun jayega?

If you’re in Delhi, you’re probably googling which face mask or air purifier to buy, hesitant of shelling those thousands from your pocket. And if you’re the more conscious type, you’ve already bought them.

Either way, every person is trying to do what they can to not let smog hamper their life. But what is India’s Environment ministry doing?

Govt Studies Prove Correlation Between Pollution and Disease

The government has studied the correlation between pollution and morbidity. In a Lok Sabha answer given by the Ministry of Environment on 28 July, 2015 the Central Pollution Control Board with the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute in Kolkata conducted a study which observed:

Pulmonary and systemic changes, altered immunity and damage to chromosomes and DNA and other health impairments associated with cumulative exposure to high level of particulate pollution that increases the risk of various diseases.

Another study published in 2006 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare-funded Vallabhai Patel Chest Institute observed the impact of smoking and pollution in Delhi.

Of a sample of 5,900 adults in Delhi, the study found that 11.69 percent suffered from rhinitis and 11.03 percent from asthma.

So, the government is sitting on this data and doing what, exactly? They’ve have established already that there is a correlation.

This denial of the pollution problem in Delhi needs to be addressed and the government needs to be taken to task.

Video Producer: Aishwarya S Iyer

Video Editor: Purnendu Pritam

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