Nov 22, 2024 03:16 IST
First published on: Nov 22, 2024 at 03:16 IST
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Delhi is sick and gasping. The seasonal smog, haze, or whatever we may call it, has enveloped the city more viciously this year. Many parts of the city have reported an Air Quality Index (AQI) reading of more than 500 micrograms per cubic metre — more than 30 times the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) permissible limit of 15 micrograms per cubic metre for 24 hours. The capital of the republic is suffocating in its own air.
Among the 30 million citizens who live in Delhi, the air pollution appears to have caused only minimal concern. The wafer-thin section of the city’s privileged upper- and upper-middle-class have a false sense of security and comfort, with their air purifiers and masks, while the majority of the underprivileged have no voice and no existential meaning for the rest of the country. Their concern for daily earnings far outweighs worries about the ability of their lungs to deal with the toxic air. I fail to understand what kind of business interests, religiosity, or nationalism stops citizens from questioning their elected governments over this unbelievably mephitic air.
The air pollution in Delhi is part of a larger problem that the government needs to deal with urgently. As per the IQAir website, which is supposedly the world’s largest free real-time air quality monitoring webpage, there are 84 Indian cities among the 100 most air-polluted cities globally. This is an astounding statement on the health of a nation which is a signatory to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Unhealthy air is a known cause of debilitating chronic respiratory diseases like bronchitis and asthma. More dangerously, air pollution is also a causative factor in many non-respiratory ailments like strokes and cardiovascular accidents. Recent research shows that fine particulate matter impairs the functioning of blood vessels and speeds up the calcification of normal arteries. We are all well-aware of the connection between air pollution and lung cancer but a study published in 2019 from the University of California suggested a link between air pollution and breast cancer in women living near major roads and highways. In a paper published in China in July this year, it was shown that pregnant women exposed to high levels of air pollutants are at higher risk of giving birth to babies with cerebral palsy. Air pollution is thus a hydra-headed problem that affects all systems and all ages. The fact that air pollution is known to annually kill around 7 million people around the world is itself a matter of grave concern.
Unfortunately, as Indians, we believe that maintaining health and taking care of ourselves in times of illness is a personal matter, unrelated to political agendas, policies or commitments. We grow up wrongly believing that the state has no role in our health. The state is considered, and so becomes, a bystander in the process of citizen’s health delivery. The lack of remedial measures for air pollution we are witnessing is an outcome of the state’s nonchalance about public health.
The cause of this intense air pollution in Delhi is multifactorial. As privileged, educated citizens, we may assuage our guilt and point to the farmers of Haryana and Punjab for burning stubble as the main cause of this whale-like cloud of pollutants. But it is now well established that factory pollution, vehicle emissions, thermal power plants in and around Delhi, and other nonrenewable energy outputs contribute far more to the pollution. Even worse is the political blame game between the Centre and state
governments in this regard.
The remedial approach to this massive problem lies in learning from others. At the beginning of this century, Beijing was one of the most polluted cities in the world. By 2014, Beijing had brought down air pollution by around 60-70 per cent. Its multi-pronged strategy included liaising with medical and public health researchers, control of vehicular emissions, legislation which was strictly implemented, “end of pipe” methods and public and media awareness strategies. Most importantly, between 2013 and 2017, the financial investment in air pollution control in Beijing saw a sixfold increase. Controlling air pollution is thus a political commitment that the government of the day has to ensure through dedicated, concrete investments and strategies. Fear of the law forms an important part of this strategy.
Delhi is an unequal city. The massive gulf between the rich and the poor who share its toxic sky is all too perceptible. Air pollution has ramifications for all. The privileged and the hapless shall feel its effects, and not with too much of a gap. This level of air pollution will have a generational effect. The people of this country should realise that commitment to their holistic welfare should be the only reliable hallmark of politicians who woo them with useless doles, chest-thumping and hollow words.
The writer is Professor, Department of Orthopaedics AIIMS, New Delhi. Views are personal
