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The New York Times

17 Dec, 11 tweets, 6 min read

Air pollution can be deadly in India, where it contributed to the deaths of more people last year than any other risk factor.

We followed two children from different backgrounds in New Delhi and measured their exposure to pollution.
nyti.ms/3mqKgEp

Monu, 13, and Aamya, 11, breathe some of the most polluted air in the world, but only Aamya's family can afford air purifiers.

Over the course of one day, Monu was exposed to about four times as much PM 2.5 — a measure of pollution — as Aamya. nyti.ms/3mqKgEp

The difference in their exposure is clear as soon as they wake up. Monu lifts his mosquito net and crawls out of bed onto a dirt floor. Outside, his mom cooks over an open fire. A few miles away, Aamya’s mom wakes her; an air purifier purrs in the hallway. nyti.ms/3mqKgEp

Homes in upper-middle class neighborhoods in New Delhi with well-fitted windows and air purifiers tend to have cleaner air than homes in less affluent areas.

Monu and Aamya live just miles apart, but their daily lives illustrate the disparity. nyti.ms/3mqKgEp

Working with researchers from ILK Labs last year, New York Times journalists tracked how much air pollution Aamya and Monu were exposed to over the course of a day.

We could see the differences just from the filters on their pollution monitors. nyti.ms/3mqKgEp

Their schools provide widely different levels of protection.

Aamya attends a private school known for its efforts to insulate students from air pollution.

Monu’s school is free — but it has no walls or doors. The classroom air is the same as outside. nyti.ms/3mqKgEp

At Monu’s school, which is built under a bridge, he is exposed to more than three times the pollution in his classroom than Aamya, whose school has air purifiers in every room. nyti.ms/3mqKgEp

When Monu does his homework, his mom cooks over a fire, filling the air with smoke. At Aamya’s home, a servant cooks in another room.

Pollution around Aamya rose, but not as much as for Monu, who was exposed to some of the highest levels of the day. nyti.ms/3mqKgEp

The pollution on the day we measured Monu and Aamya's air quality was bad, but it was four times higher on Delhi's worst day last year.

Still, the data shows how Monu is consistently exposed to more pollution. nyti.ms/3mqKgEp

@Raspberry_Pi

We used four different air monitors to collect this data. Our main tool was an AirBeam 2, which we connected to a small, battery-powered @Raspberry_Pi computer running customized open-source software for collecting data. Read more on our methodology: nytimes.com/interactive/20…

There is no single cause of India’s pollution, and no single solution. The government has not made air pollution as high a priority as rapid economic growth.

Clean-air activists say most people have no idea about how bad pollution really is.

Read more: nyti.ms/3mqKgEp

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