WILL YOU ZIP IT NOW ... AFTER THIS "WHO"
Cities in India Among the Most Polluted, W.H.O. Says
NEW DELHI —
New Delhi’s air is the most polluted in the world, according to an international report that quantifies pollution levels, confirming findings by experts confounded by the lack of attention to the city’s problem.
The
findings by the World Health Organization, released on Wednesday, show that the cities ranking second through fourth are also in India, in the central Hindi belt.
For years, experts have wondered why so much international attention has focused on air pollution in Beijing when some say conditions are as bad or even worse in South Asia.
“
I am shocked at the extent of the problem they found in India,” said Dr. Sundeep Salvi, the director of the Chest Research Foundation in Pune, India. “This is incredibly bad, and there is a complete lack of awareness about it both amongst policy makers and the common man.”
On Thursday in New Delhi, air pollution monitors measured levels of PM 2.5 — the small particles considered among the most dangerous for lung health — exceeding 350 micrograms per cubic meter of air. That was one of the
highest levels recorded in Asia on Thursday, and twice as high as Beijing’s peak for the morning, according to a post on a
Twitter account about Beijing pollution maintained by the United States Embassy there.
PM 2.5 refers to particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, which is believed to pose the greatest health risk because it penetrates deeply into lungs.
In Beijing, a pollution level as high as Delhi’s would most likely have caused widespread concern. But in Delhi, almost no one seemed to notice. Few people here wear the filter masks that have been appearing on the streets of Beijing, and even among the wealthy, few own air purifiers, which are used widely in East Asia, because few are even aware of the problem.
India is in the midst of national elections, but air pollution is rarely mentioned by leading politicians. At a recent embassy party here, several people expressed astonishment that New Delhi’s air was considered dangerous. One of the guests, a marathon runner who jogs through Delhi’s streets daily, said she had never noticed any problem with the air.
i have quoted even Bloomberg where they claimed that obama lost 6 hours of life span due to visit of india .....
