New Delhi was e wrapped in a damaging haze on Friday when air pollution levels in parts of the city reached “severe” degrees, hours after U. S. President Donald Trump described the air in the vast country as “dirty. “
Agricultural combustion smoke, vehicle fumes and commercial emissions, combined with cooler temperatures and slow winds that trap pollutants over the city, turn Indian capital air into a poisonous soup every winter.
The air quality index of Delhi’s 36 pollutant tracking sites, which monitors tiny PM2. 5 and PM10 waste entering the bloodstream and important organs, between 282 and 446, pushes grades into the “severe” category, the Central Pollution Control Board said.
The “good” is between 0 and 50, added the government’s environmental regulator.
A “significant increase in the number of thatched roof fires” to 1,213 in Haryana and Punjab states, the highest this season and accounted for 17% of Delhi’s PM2. 5 levels, the Weather Forecasting and Air Quality Research System said Friday.
“A deterioration (of air quality) is expected on any of the days,” SAFAR said.
This season’s fires began earlier due to farmers’ planting and harvesting complex amid fears of labor shortages and the coronavirus pandemic, authorities said.
The worsening situation came when Trump complained that climate actions replace unfair actions for America.
“Look at China, how filthy it is. Look at Russia, look at India, it is filthy. The air is filthy,” Trump said in his presidential debate with his Democratic rival Joe Biden.
Scientists have warned that this year’s pollutant season will make Delhi’s 20 million people more vulnerable to coronavirus.
“Air pollutants increase the threat of noncommunicable diseases, the same underlying situations that make others more likely to suffer serious illness or die of Covid-19,” epidemiologist Sumi Mehta of the nonprofit Vital Strategies told AFP.
Health systems, spread during the pandemic, may be additional due to more hospitalizations due to pollution-related diseases, the researchers added.
“There are serious fears that in winter, when upper air pollutant levels worsen respiratory diseases anyway and hospitalizations increase, vulnerability to Covid-19 could increase further,” Anumita Roy Chowdhury AFP told AFP from the Delhi Science Center and Environment. Array
The leading medical officer of Gurugram City near New Delhi, Virender Yadav, told the Times of India Thursday that some recovering Covid-19 patients were experiencing a resurgence of respiratory disorders caused by increased air pollution.
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