Air quality in Delhi inches closer to 'severe' category

The poisonous haze blanketing Delhi thickened on Wednesday with the air quality standing close to the severe category amid unfavourable meteorological conditionsThe national capitals Air Quality Index AQI stood at 392 at 8 am The 24hour average AQI recorded at 4 pm every day was 397 on Tuesday It was 358 on Monday and 218 on SundayAir pollution levels entered the severe category AQI above 400 at many places within the city including ITO 427 RK Puram 422 Punjabi Bagh 432 IGI Airport 404 Dwarka 416 Patparganj 417 Sonia Vihar 413 Rohini 421 Nehru Nagar 434 and Anand Vihar 430Neighbouring Ghaziabad 362 Gurugram 322 Greater Noida 312 Noida 364 and Faridabad 369 also recorded very poor air qualityAn AQI between zero and 50 is considered good 51 and 100 satisfactory 101 and 200 moderate 201 and 300 poor 301 and 400 very poor 401 and 450 severe and above 450 severe plusAccording to IQAir a Swiss company that specialises in air quality monitoring Delhi was the most polluted city in the world on Tuesday followed by Dhaka Lahore and MumbaiAccording to a system developed by the Punebased Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology to identify the contribution of different pollution sources stubbleburning accounted for 12 per cent of the air pollution in the capital on Tuesday It is likely to be 14 per cent on Wednesday and six per cent on ThursdayAn official of the Commission for Air Quality Management CAQM said stringent measures including a ban on construction work and the entry of polluting trucks in the national capital under the final stage of the central governments air pollution control plan called the Graded Response Action Plan GRAP will continue until further ordersStubble burning incidents are rising again and the meteorological conditions are not favourable for dispersion of pollutants We will review the situation and act accordingly the official addedDoctors say breathing in the polluted air of Delhi is equivalent to the harmful effects of smoking approximately 10 cigarettes a dayProlonged exposure to high levels of pollution can cause or exacerbate respiratory problems such as asthma bronchitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD and dramatically raise the risk of cardiovascular disease they saidUnfavourable meteorological conditions combined with vehicular emissions paddystraw burning firecrackers and other local pollution sources contribute to hazardous air quality levels in DelhiNCR during wintersAccording to a Delhi Pollution Control Committee DPCC analysis the city experiences peak pollution from November 1 to 15 when the number of stubbleburning incidents in Punjab and Haryana increases Delhis air quality ranks among the worst in the worlds capital citiesAccording to a report compiled by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago EPIC in August air pollution is shortening lives by almost 12 years in DelhiThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever