Musings on Pure Air

  In 2014, The World Health Organization studied the air quality of 1,600 cities in 91 countries. New Delhi, India, was ranked number 1 as the most polluted city in the world. Beyond the findings for Delhi, 13 of the top 20 cities with the highest annual averages of PM2.5 in the WHO study were also in India. The figures were alarming and concerning!   Using satellite-based remote sensing technology and ground-level data from the Central Pollution Control Board, Dr. Michael Greenstone and his team from WHO produced an insightful study (Greenstone et al., 2015) showing that 660 million people (more than half of India’s population at that time) lived in areas that highly exceed India’s standards for fine particulate pollution. Large portions of India, particularly in the north along the Indo-Gangetic plain, were heavily polluted and in non-compliance with India’s National Air Quality Standards (NAAQS.) Since 2014, this data has been updated yearly by the W.H.O. Though New Delhi subseq

With air pollution remaining critically high and serious health since 2010 in India, especially in the capital city of New Delhi, the Supreme Court of India in 2015 mandated the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to draw up an urgent and comprehensive action plan to tackle this problem. The action plan was mapped out by an expert committee and submitted to the Supreme Court in December 2016. After proper analysis and deliberation, it was accepted and rolled out, thus introducing the Graded Response Action Plan or GRAP to the city of Delhi and the National Capital Region. Implemented in January 2017 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, this plan aimed to ensure the “prevention, control, and abatement” of air pollution in Delhi-NCR. The central government set up the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to implement the program. This statutory body was tasked to work with other Indian states to develop and implement similar plans for a more considerable i

Poor air quality has a direct effect on human health. Exposure to air pollutants or airborne allergens can harm our respiratory and cardiovascular systems or exacerbate existing conditions in susceptible populations. Children, older adults, persons with asthma, and immune compromised persons are most vulnerable to air quality impacts. Respiratory impacts can include advanced-stage asthma, respiratory allergies, and airway diseases, while cardiovascular effects can include hypertension, coronary artery disease, heart attack, and stroke. Bad air quality is also linked to eye problems up to and including partial blindness, skin allergies, lack of mental alertness, and kidney problems due to inhalation of chemical particles that are bad for kidney health. The national library of medicine at the National Centre for Biotechnology Information in the United States has published a detailed report on each particulate element in polluted air and its effect on people. The  same report  validates o

It is a known fact that humans and animals can last a few weeks or months without food, a few weeks without water, but only a few minutes at the most without air. Thus the importance of constant air presence for sustaining life is a must. Yet it is not enough to be surrounded by the all-pervasive air. It is also crucial that the air is clean, fresh, and pollution free since inhaling polluted air can lead to diseases of various proportions and gravity. However, in the present world, this natural resource that we cannot live without has become the cause of human deaths, chronic diseases, infant and maternal mortality, and food and water contamination. Air pollution is now one of the leading causes of death in India and Asia.    The India-specific findings of the new Global Burden of Disease (GBD) count, a global initiative involving the World Health Organisation, stated that air pollution had become the fifth largest killer in India. These India-specific finding

Air is the most universal and free life-giving resource provided to humankind by nature. Its crucial requirement for the very existence of life cannot be undermined, nor must it be questioned that it must be pristine and pollution free for life to thrive healthily. Unfortunately, with the need for more comfort and luxury by people, unscrupulous infrastructure development, cutting down of forests, and excessive use of plastic, air pollution is one of the most serious environmental issues in the world today. Consequently, exposure to polluted air causes millions of deaths and causes the loss of years of healthy life annually. It exacts a massive toll on health and well-being worldwide. Air pollution is now recognized as the most significant environmental threat to human health. According to the World Health Organization  report  air pollution kills 13 people every minute due to lung cancer, heart disease, and strokes. Each year nearly 7 million people die globally from exposure to air