Pollution in Delhi is worse than Beijing / Indians have the world's weakest lungs

[Desmond]

What do you guys say?

NEW DELHI — In mid-January, air pollution in Beijing was so bad that the government issued urgent health warnings and closed four major highways, prompting the panicked buying of air filters and donning of face masks. But in New Delhi, where pea-soup smog created what was by some measurements even more dangerous air, there were few signs of alarm in the country’s boisterous news media, or on its effervescent Twittersphere.

Despite Beijing’s widespread reputation of having some of the most polluted air of any major city in the world, an examination of daily pollution figures collected from both cities suggests that New Delhi’s air is more laden with dangerous small particles of pollution, more often, than Beijing’s. Lately, a very bad air day in Beijing is about an average one in New Delhi.

The United States Embassy in Beijing sent out warnings in mid-January, when a measure of harmful fine particulate matter known as PM2.5 went above 500, in the upper reaches of the measurement scale, for the first time this year. This refers to particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, which is believed to pose the greatest health risk because it penetrates deeply into lungs.

But for the first three weeks of this year, New Delhi’s average daily peak reading of fine particulate matter from Punjabi Bagh, a monitor whose readings are often below those of other city and independent monitors, was 473, more than twice as high as the average of 227 in Beijing. By the time pollution breached 500 in Beijing for the first time on the night of Jan. 15, Delhi had already had eight such days. Indeed, only once in three weeks did New Delhi’s daily peak value of fine particles fall below 300, a level more than 12 times the exposure limit recommended by the World Health Organization.

“It’s always puzzled me that the focus is always on China and not India,” said Dr. Angel Hsu, director of the environmental performance measurement program at the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. “China has realized that it can’t hide behind its usual opacity, whereas India gets no pressure to release better data. So there simply isn’t good public data on India like there is for China.”

Experts have long known that India’s air is among the worst in the world. A recent analysis by Yale researchers found that seven of the 10 countries with the worst air pollution exposures are in South Asia. And evidence is mounting that Indians pay a higher price for air pollution than almost anyone. A recent study showed that Indians have the world’s weakest lungs, with far less capacity than Chinese lungs. Researchers are beginning to suspect that India’s unusual mix of polluted air, poor sanitation and contaminated water may make the country among the most dangerous in the world for lungs.

India has the world’s highest death rate because of chronic respiratory diseases, and it has more deaths from asthma than any other nation, according to the World Health Organization. A recent study found that half of all visits to doctors in India are for respiratory problems, according to Sundeep Salvi, director of the Chest Research Foundation in Pune.

Clean Air Asia, an advocacy group, found that another common measure of pollution known as PM10, for particulate matter less than 10 micrometers in diameter, averaged 117 in Beijing in a six-month period in 2011. In New Delhi, the Center for Science and Environment used government data and found that an average measure of PM10 in 2011 was 281, nearly two-and-a-half times higher.

Perhaps most worrisome, Delhi’s peak daily fine particle pollution levels are 44 percent higher this year than they were last year, when they averaged 328 over the first three weeks of the year. Fine particle pollution has been strongly linked with premature death, heart attacks, strokes and heart failure. In October, the World Health Organization declared that it caused lung cancer.

But in India, Delhi’s newly elected regional government did not mention air pollution among its 18 priorities, and India’s environment minister quit in December amid widespread criticism that she was delaying crucial industrial projects. Her replacement, the government’s petroleum minister, almost immediately approved several projects that could add considerably to pollution. India and China strenuously resisted pollution limits in global climate talks in Warsaw in November.

Frank Hammes, chief executive of IQAir, a Swiss-based maker of air filters, said his company’s sales were hundreds of times higher in China than in India.

“In China, people are extremely concerned about the air, especially around small children,” Mr. Hammes said. “Why there’s not the same concern in India is puzzling.”

In multiple interviews, Delhiites expressed a mixture of unawareness and despair about the city’s pollution levels. “I don’t think pollution is a major concern for Delhi,” said Akanksha Singh, a 20-year-old engineering student who lives on Delhi’s outskirts in Ghaziabad, adding that he felt that Delhi’s pollution problems were not nearly as bad as those of surrounding towns.

More details : *www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/world/asia/beijings-air-would-be-step-up-for-smoggy-delhi.html?_r=3

 

[whitestar_999]

in today's times of india paper:
Delhi's air quality not as poor as Beijing's - The Times of India

 

[Desmond]

in today's times of india paper:
Delhi's air quality not as poor as Beijing's - The Times of India

For some reason I find it hard to believe. Because TOI.

 

[amjath]

Because of pollution, I started suffering from wheezing since last year.

 

[whitestar_999]

that's like saying it must be true because it is BBC.from the above article:

Several air pollution experts and environment ministry officials sought clarification from IITM on whether Delhi had poorer air than Beijing. Scientists claim that one of the reasons why there could have been a misunderstanding about Delhi's air quality is because the hourly values are often not representative of the 24 hour average. "What matters is the exposure of well-mixed ambient air on a longer period," said Sunil Peshin from Indian meteorological department.

btw i don't get why ToI gets so much hate.i agree they sometimes publish stories with no sense but then which newspaper doesn't.in fact being a regular reader i can say that ToI is the only paper i can think of which has both praised & criticized modi as well as AAP/Kejriwal which is much more than any other paper i read which either are in 1 camp or another.

 

[Desmond]

I am ready to look at both sides of the coin for this article, also TOI's article could be genuinely correct. But the image of TOI is such that I have grown to not trust them.

Also this : *www.mediacrooks.com/2014/01/the-shoe-finally-pinches-toi.html?m=1

 

[Vyom]

"India has the world’s highest death rate ..." does it take into account that India is the second most populous country?

The article seems to have written from a person with skewed perspective. After the introduction of CNG only buses, pollution have gotten down as per my experience. :/

 

[Desmond]

But no. of cars have increased as per the article.

 

[Anorion]

yeah I wanted to post this. the smog is pretty bad in mum too.
this is because of particle suspension in air. construction, digging, etc. these are worse than working in a mine or asbestos plant, the particles settle in lungs permanently, and will require cleaning from inside which is painful.
time to order gas masks.

"India has the world’s highest death rate ..." does it take into account that India is the second most populous country?

The article seems to have written from a person with skewed perspective. After the introduction of CNG only buses, pollution have gotten down as per my experience. :/

nope. india has the... the highest rate of chronic lung and respiratory disorders, in the world. not to mention asthma. was mentioned in one of the sources of these article, will try to track down.

edit, its here : *apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.A866?lang=en

we are on top of the list when it comes to "Mortality: Chronic respiratory diseases, deaths per 100,000 by country"

 

[skeletor]

None of the Indian cities are as worse as Beijing.

Except may be Kolkata.

 

[freshseasons]

So does it mean people in India die faster than people in other countries like china.

So if somehow you are an NRI or that you settle abroad you have just increased your life span .

 

[$hadow]

Cities like Kanpur, Moradabad in U.P. which are known for their manufacturing and import of brass, leather etc have a very dense pollution in the city centers. On some places you can barely see a clear sky.

 

[ash63425]

I guess whether it is more or less than Beijing but it is harmful for sure. Day by day its getting tougher to breathe in cities like Delhi and NCR.

 

[Anorion]

this is news because people realized delhi has low-visibility white-out smog persisting through mid-day which is what beijing was notorious for.
this is not caused by the small particle PM2.5 pollutants (exhaust, industrial chimneys) but by larger pollutant particles suspended in air (construction), which has fewer comments in these stories. so the alarm is caused by the larger particles, but the focus is on the deadlier smaller particle pollution. deadlier is just relative here, these bigger particles are also dangerous, and cause the chronic breathing problems mentioned in the articles.

anyway, would trust the TOI src which is a govt organisation responsible for tracking pollution SAFAR, more than the NYT source which is a public interest environmental advocacy group About CSE | Centre for Science and Environment

 

[Nanducob]

Add some cigarette to weaken the lungs more

 

[icebags]

thanks to all the smokers and guddi+bike -wallas, we and the next gen indians gradually will consume less oxygen than our ancestors. govt should make petrol price 200/litre with immediate effect, forcing people to use public transport.


there is a flyover here, i often go walking, and find the air above flyover is thicker than what lies under it, where no car is running.