"Gas Chamber" Triggers Health Crisis in Delhi

A perfectly healthy boy came home one day complaining of shortness of breath.  Hours later, he was in the hospital with an acute bronchitis attack.  This past week, the concentration of dangerous microscopic particles has climbed to 700 micrograms per cubic meter, and the Air Quality Index has consistently hit its maximum pollution value.  The air is so toxic that it is the equivalent of smoking more than two packs of cigarettes per day.  Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal says the city has become a "gas chamber."

Clinics are flooded with patients suffering from respiratory diseases, and doctors have declared a public health emergency.  Schools have already been shut down, and residents have been warned to stay indoors, to not smoke, and to wear masks if they must go outside.

Based on a new study by Michael Greenstone at the University of Chicago, Delhi's residents would live significantly longer if the city met its pollution limits set by either the Indian government or the World Health Organization, but it comes nowhere near meeting either.

Sorry I didn't have the link this time.

Steven Grant Weber