Breathless

It is an emergency, and there is no other way to look at it when ­Delhi government바카라�s health advisory this week is that we바카라�re all grounded. 바카라�Stay indoors,바카라� they said. No, we have not been hit by the Zika ­virus, and neither is this a Hollywood apocalypse movie. Yet for those walking around like they바카라�re headed to a masked ball바카라�wearing face masks that can look like anything from simple surgical masks to intense Darth Vader-­esque masks바카라�there바카라�s no fun at this party. In fact, it is being described quite accurately as 바카라�chilli in my eyes바카라�.

Social media, from being awash not so long ago with tricolour filters on profile photos, now has people posting views from their windows바카라�of nothing. And that바카라�s not because of their preferred Facebook filter. It is because there actually is no view, ­because there is no visibility.

The gunfire simulation of Diwali night brought Delhi바카라�s pollution to its climax. No, it didn바카라�t cause the pollution, but it tipped the situation to a choking, suffocating, gas-trap. The widespread 바카라�say no to crackers바카라� campaign doesn바카라�t seem to have worked.

Kanwaljeet Singh, living in a posh Gurgaon locality, was out on the road on Diwali night bursting crackers way past midnight with his family in tow. 바카라�What no-crackers? It is not as if we burst crackers every day,바카라� he says, showing no sign of guilt over his contribution to the post-festival haze. 바카라�It is just one day in a year. That surely cannot cause pollution to last a lifetime.바카라�

He is proud of his two children, aged nine and six, for having strong immunity. 바카라�Both my children have lungs of steel,바카라� he says. 바카라�If we keep them cocooned, they will never develop immunity. The younger one coughs once in a while during change of seasons, but she is mostly healthy.바카라�

Singh must be among the lucky few, but the National Capital Region is just not a safe place to breathe in anymore. Everyone from the chief justice to the chaiwallah is breathing the same toxic air. It바카라�s a class-equaliser. And yet, even as we move our attention from dengue and chikungunya to pollution, nothing is being done about this massive public health crisis.

The most vulnerable to 바카라�death by breath바카라� are young children, the elderly, those whose bodies are weakened by diseases such as cancer or diabetes, besides those already suffering from respiratory problems. In young children, respiratory systems are not developed enough to withstand the onslaught of poison, while among the elderly the systems are deteriorating. In the case of those suffering from other non-respiratory diseases, the weakening of their immune system due to those conditions makes them prone to respiratory problems as well.

Sameer Kashyap, a 30-year-old in a joint family with several young children and elders, is well aware of the risks involved. He is one of those whom the no-cracker campaign see­med to have irritated. 바카라�I stopped bursting crackers two years ago, out of concern for the environment,바카라� he says. 바카라�But I don바카라�t like people telling me not to do things. I know what is good and bad, don바카라�t keep pushing me. Telling us to stop crackers is like telling a diabetic he can바카라�t have gulab jamun on Diwali.바카라�

Kunal Vashisth, too, took this year as an exception. The 25-year-old law student says, 바카라�I hadn바카라�t been bursting crackers for almost six years, because I didn바카라�t want to bother the elders and dogs in my house. But this year, one of my dogs died on Diw­ali. I was depressed. So I burst a string of 5,000 crackers,바카라� he says.

However, the pollution has taken a toll with a large number of people affected in one way or the other. For Radha Kishan, an elderly man in his 70s living in Pitampura, Diwali was no festival of lights. In fact, his weak lungs got darker. Having already suffered from asthma for about six years, the crackers hit him where it hurts. His son Rohit Chabbra is worried. 바카라�As the festival progressed, my father바카라�s health fell,바카라� says Chabbra. 바카라�First, his blood pressure went dangerously low. Then he was admitted to the ICU. We shifted him to the ward, but now he is back in the ICU. He is on oxygen support.바카라� Chabbra had to take a week off from work, and the bills at the private hospital have set him back by more than Rs 1 lakh. 바카라�We need a ban on fireworks,바카라� he says. 바카라�We need a ban on heavy and polluting vehicles also. Crackers are such a big part of Indian culture that people are not going to stop bursting them on their own. They have to be banned.바카라�

Diwali, however, is not the cause of the more systemic pollution that north India faces. It only brings the prevailing menace to a dramatic pitch, as it finally did in the capital, triggering a shutdown of schools, industries and construction this week. A study by IIT Kanpur, commissioned by the Delhi government in 2013, lists road dust as responsible for 56 per cent of PM10 emissions and for 35 per cent of PM2.5. Vehicle emissions account for about 25 per cent of PM2.5, of which trucks바카라�not cars or bikes바카라�are actually the major contributors. This poses a challenge to the Delhi government바카라�s most flamboyant attempt at controlling pollution바카라�the Odd-Even scheme for traffic.

PM2.5 is a fine particulate matter and poses a hazard as it can enter the blood stream and get lodged in the lungs. It has been shown to cause asthma and other respiratory ailments, cardiovascular pro­blems and even cancer. Air pollution has been studied as a cause for stroke, hypertension and diabetes, and also for its effects on the brain and the foetus. A 2012 study by the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute of Calcutta covered nearly 12,000 children in Delhi and found that every third child had reduced lung function. Their sputum contained iron-laden macrophages, indicating a pulmonary haemorrhage.

So how does one protect oneself? Face masks can only do so much. They cannot, for instance, protect you from 바카라�chilli in the eyes바카라�. And the instruction to 바카라�stay indoors바카라� is just not a working solution for thousands who sleep on the pavement, drive autos or sell their wares in the street. This might be why people like Chabbra want everything that pollutes to be banned, including crackers on Diwali.

The fireworks industry too doesn바카라�t buy the blame that바카라�s being pinned on them. K. Mari­appan, secretary of the Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amor­ces Manufacturer바카라�s Association, says cra­ckers cannot be responsible for the pollution. 바카라�The intense smog after Diw­ali is only a coincidence,바카라� he says. 바카라�Our fireworks from Sivakasi are burst all over the country, but we hear these complaints only from cities like Delhi and Mumbai. So there are clearly other factors contributing to pollution there, which exist long before and after Diwali.바카라�

Why should we care? The cracker industry argues that a stricter control on Diwali will affect livelihood and industry. Some right-wing voices have gone so far as to say that all those opposing firecrackers are somehow anti-Hindu or anti-­Indian. But should these stakeholders give centre-stage to what concerns everyone바카라�our health? 바카라�I won바카라�t even consider private int­erests as a party to this conversation,바카라� says environmentalist Vimlendu Jha, founder of Swechha, a Delhi-based NGO. 바카라�This is not a GDP discussion. This is a discussion on life and death, and we can바카라�t allow private interests to take over.바카라�

The inability to understand the complex science involved leads to a certain degree of complacence. 바카라�It바카라�s not only people with asthma who are at risk here,바카라� says Dr P.P. Bose, chest physician at National Heart Institute. 바카라�Given that a significant chunk of our population alr­eady has issues like diabetes and cancer, they are also a high-risk group for picking up respiratory problems. School children, who start early in the morning, get hit by intense pollution. In some way or the other, everyone is at risk.바카라�

Bose is seeing many patients who he had treated a long time back returning with their problems aggravated. 바카라�When you get new patients in their 30s coming to you, it means they did not have a genetic issue, but began to develop problems because of the environment,바카라� says Bose. Dr Anil Gomber, chairman of the Delhi chapter of the Association of Physicians of India, says, 바카라�The pattern we used to see before was of patients with chronic issues, or patients whose problems got aggravated due to the pollen season. Now we see patients whom we wouldn바카라�t normally expect to be having respiratory issues, and we see patients coming in all through the year.바카라�

Given that countries with pollution levels less than Delhi바카라�s have shut down, Jha rues how late the response was for what has become an annual occurrence. Several places in Delhi register at the upper limit on pollution meters. 바카라�Pollution meters cannot take readings beyond the score of 999,바카라� he says. 바카라�This means those areas could be ­polluted in a manner that is not even being measured. Just because the damage here is not imm­ediate, as it would be in a gas leak, we are complacent. But this is a slow death and that needs attention.바카라�

What Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced recently to curb pollution in the city were only temporary measures in an emergency situation. 바카라�These are not the real solutions,바카라� Delhi바카라�s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia tells Outlook. 바카라�Delhi is in crisis due to vehicular pollution, illegal constructions and so on. Long-term solutions lie in steps such as regularising unauthorised colonies because once these are regularised, the systems there will also start functioning.바카라�

On being asked what the issue of regularisation could have to do with the smog, Sisodia explains, 바카라�Dem­olition and construction of una­uthorised colonies happen sim­u­­­ltaneously in the city, producing a huge amount of dust that gets mixed with vehicular pollution and aggravates the situation.바카라�

Illegal entry of vehicles into Delhi is another factor that contributes to the pollution in the city바카라�s air. 바카라�The Delhi government needs at least 200 officers and 70-80 vehicles to stop this,바카라� says Sisodia. 바카라�But what can we do when things are being stopped? The files are lying in the lieutenant-governor바카라�s office. To regularise colonies, the Delhi government, MCD and DDA have to work in tandem. Colonies where boundaries have been marked need to be regularised by MCD and then DDA can change the land use.바카라�

Taking on the menace of pollution, clearly, calls for interventions at various levels and involve coordination among a number of agencies. 바카라�There is a multiplicity of authorities in Delhi but no one is willing to take up res­ponsibility,바카라� says Sisodia. 바카라�It is only the elected government that is struggling to put things in place for a better Delhi.바카라�