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India: pollution causes national health crisis

People burn fire on the occasion of Diwali festival in 2017 - Photo: AFP

Air pollution has been worsening in New Delhi and neighboring cities over the past few days when the fireworks festival comes.

According to the Hindustan Times , 14/15 city is polluted by air pollution, the worst in the Indian history.

Air pollution is defined as the cause of many dangerous diseases such as cancer, lung disease, cardiovascular disease and acute respiratory disease, premature birth and many more.

Masks on the streets are now commonplace in Indian cities – Photo: REUTERS

The Indian newspaper reported a high percentage of children in the country are suffering from lung and brain pollution that have not recovered yet fully. India also has the highest rate of deaths from chronic respiratory diseases and asthma in the world.

According to the Hindustan Times , this is a national health crisis and requires urgent action.

The Indian government has actually taken a number of steps to improve this, but it seems unlikely. The evidence is located right in the capital of India i.e. New Delhi.

Air quality in New Delhi is approaching a serious level, Diwali festival in India is just less than two weeks from today. There are too much fears of air pollution among people of India and definately it will peak due to burning of fireworks during the festival.

On the morning of October 26, the Air Quality Index (AQI) measured up to 358, up from the 337 i.e. measured a day before.

Let you know that how much air quality index (AQI) is Good for human
AQI of 0-50 is good; from 51 to 100 is average; 101 – 200 is bad; 201 – 300 is very bad; 301 – 400 is very very bad and 401 – 500 is serious.

From 10 to 10, the air quality in New Delhi is always fluctuating in bad and very bad. Neighboring cities such as Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Faridabad also noted high levels of pollution in the past five days.

In light of the alarming situation, Indian Environment Minister Imran Hussain has considered implementing a response plan called GRAP. The GRAP activation was triggered by the Supreme Court’s order when the AQI reached a critical threshold.

The Supreme Court of India has issued a partial ban on burning fireworks during the Diwali holiday to ensure the level of pollution is lower than in previous years. Accordingly, people can only burn “green cannon, candles” in the time frame from 20h – 22h.

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