Doctors ring alarm bells as pollution level in India capital continues to cloak in thick brown smog and category ‘severe’

By S A H Rizvi
Chief of Bureau New Delhi
The Times Kuwait

As pollution levels in India’s capital, Delhi, and its satellite towns have soared to their highest levels this year, doctors have raised red flags saying the situation if not checked will have dangerous ramification to the health of citizens especially children and elderly persons.

The city cloaked in thick brown smog, has forced government to close schools and shut offices as it battles to minimise the damage but now that it is too late. “Majority of hospitals in Delhi are overflowing with patients complaining of respiratory disorders following the smog since the quality of air that had deteriorated in the last couple of months” eminent pulmonologist reputed for lung transplantation Dr Mayank Saxena says

True as Dr Saxena says for days in some part of the city a live air quality ranking by IQ Air put pollution levels at more than 30 times the maximum level deemed healthy.

India’s pollution control authority said its own reading of Delhi’s 24-hour air quality index (AQI) was 484, classified as “severe plus”, the highest so far this year. India’s Central Pollution Control Board defines an AQI reading of 0-50 as “good”.

Dr Saxena who is Additional Director (Pulmonology) at the Fortis Hospital says the situation is very alarming as air quality impacts every human and prolong exposure can lead to other health issues. “ A live barometer is that majority of houses now have nebulising machine, steam inhalation instrument unlike ten years ago when nebulising was only done at the hospital or nursing home.”he points out

Most vulnerable group are the children, and the elderly people says Dr Saxena stating it is shocking to see so many children are forced to use nebulisers because of the toxic air these days

The pollution has become an annual blight on the lives of the more than 30 million people who live in Delhi and surrounding areas. Experts say the toxic air quality is reducing life expectancy in the city by an average of seven years.

Dr Saxena is of the view that the Government must initiate emergency measures much before the onset of the smog which arrives annually as the weather in the north of India gets colder, trapping toxic pollutants from the tens of millions of cars on the road, as well as from rubbish fires, construction and factory emissions.

The problem is further compounded by fire crackers during festival and stubble fires, when farmers burn their field after harvesting rice to clear them for new crops. “We have to take measures to stop this menace beforehand and not when smog envelops the city” avers Dr Saxena

Only last month India’s supreme Court ruled that clean air was a fundamental human right and ordered the central government and state-level authorities to act. However, most measures have proved ineffective in stopping air quality deteriorating to levels highly dangerous to health.

As far as preventive measures are concerned Dr Saxena, suggest wearing of face mask, personal hygiene like washing of hands, change clothes that may carry Suspended Particles. “Eventually you need clean air and that is must”

The safety protocol resembles a lot with the Covid days as both are respiratory disorders and impact lungs. Dr Saxena who won accolades for his pioneering work during the Corona pandemic says “ Covid was bad in a way the disease could travel to you if exposed . Those were terrible days. Patients begging for space, seeing patients with ruptured lungs and such a huge load on infrastructure.”

Many rescue stories of the Covid survivors now find space on medical sites as how Dr Saxena handled the pandemic and his patients who say if they are alive today it was Dr Saxena care and motivation. “ Yes it was scary for me I had small children. My wife is also a pulmonologist and we both decided not to leave the battlefield, and we worked in shift”.

With various key research papers to is credit both nationally and internationally, Dr Saxena did his MBBS and MD both from Delhi and then trained for lung transplantation at Vienna Austria.