New Delhi: As mercury dips in the National Capital Region and air quality worsens, doctors have expressed concerns regarding the health of the people. On Tuesday, the Air Quality Index crossed 350 in Delhi, which was the worst for this season so far. Doctors are alerting patients and telling them measures to safeguard their health. Speaking to ANI, Dr Subhash Giri, Director, Lady Harding Medical College said that they are receiving a lot of patients due to side effects of pollution. Dr Giri said,
These days we are getting a lot of patients due to pollution and it affects lung conditions. Pollution is also causing effects on our neuropsychiatric behaviour. Long-term pollution causes dementia. Overall every system of our body is affected due to pollution. We used to have roughly 10-15 patients in our emergency earlier, but now the patients have increased to around 40.
Also Read: Parts Of Delhi Record Air Quality In ‘Severe’ Category
Dr Giri further urged the children and elderly to not expose themselves to the outside atmosphere frequently. He said,
The maximum bad effect of pollution is on children, elderly people and pregnant women. Children, the elderly and pregnant should try to be within the house only. They should wear the mask when they go out of their house.
Vivek Chattopadhyaya, Principal Programme Manager, Air Pollution Control Cell, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said,
The Air Quality Index today is in Very Poor category. It indicates that the air pollution level has gone up. This also says that our efforts have been a failure so far because the smoke from stubble burning has not even reached here yet. The pollution is rising due to causes in the city itself. The air has become still and its speed is slowing down causing an accumulation of pollution.
Also Read: No Relief To People In India, As The Air Quality Continues To Deteriorate In Several States
He cautioned that if control measures are not implemented the air quality would enter Severe category. Mr Chattopadhyaya said,
Right now, we need strictness with our control measures and that the action plan can be implemented across the city…There are a lot of sources of pollution in Delhi…The city has industries and commercial activity level is very high too. This is a landlocked city. When the air becomes still and the mixing height comes down, the pollution starts accumulating very close to the ground…The temperature is going down and the air is growing dense so pollution build up is taking place. If our efforts are not very successful the air quality can enter Severe category.
Last week, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said that a 15-point winter action plan is being implemented one by one to curb pollution. He said,
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had earlier announced a 15-point winter action plan to curb the pollution caused by vehicles, biomass burning, dust, etc. Now this winter action plan is being implemented on the ground one by one to reduce pollution in the national capital.
The Delhi Minister added that since one of the major causes of pollution is vehicles, they have started the ‘Red Light on, Gaadi off’ campaign on October 26.”Now the data says that in AQI the level of particulate matter (PM) 10 is decreasing and that of PM2.5 is increasing. This means that pollution caused by vehicles and biomass burning is increasing. For this, the ‘Red Light on, Gaadi off’ campaign has been started,” the Delhi minister had said.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – theLGBTQ population,indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the currentCOVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water,SanitationandHygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fightmalnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health,adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues likeair pollution,waste management,plastic ban,manual scavengingand sanitation workers andmenstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India wheretoiletsare used andopen defecation free (ODF)status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched byPrime Minister Narendra Modiin 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
