Thread by @dwallacewells

“In November, the authorities in Delhi closed schools and colleges indefinitely, suspended construction work, and shuttered half of the local coal plants after an episode of ‘toxic smog.” Life under the cloud of air pollution in India, a thread. (1/x) lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/…

“Throughout the city, particulate matter hangs around in offices, lobbies and private homes, even those with air purifiers. It often gets so thick it interferes with air travel. More remarkably, it has interrupted train travel, the smog making it impossible to see the tracks.”

“Taxi drivers have filtration systems sit shotgun to process the particulates that sneak in. Pedestrians can’t escape it, which is one reason that, on especially smoggy days, living in Delhi is the equivalent of smoking several packets of cigarettes.”

Even on relatively clear days, breathing air in Delhi is like smoking a few cigarettes.

“The city has the highest rates of respiratory illness in the world, and 60 per cent of inhabitants diagnosed with COPD – chronic obstructive pulmonary disease – aren’t even smokers.”

“Across India as a whole, where more than a million people die from air pollution each year, exposure to small particulate matter has been estimated at five times the World Health Organisation’s longtime ‘safe’ level – defined as ten micrograms per cubic metre of air.”

“This year the WHO set a new standard, at half the old level. Under the old threshold, 90 per cent of the world’s population were breathing dangerously polluted air; under the new threshold the figure is closer to 99 per cent.”

“Of the world’s fourteen most polluted metropolises, only one (Hotan in China) is outside India. Of the 336 cities that come next on the list, 184 are in China.”

“But this isn’t to say that air pollution is a problem in just two countries. Globally, it causes one death in five.”

“Globally, air pollution cuts life expectancy by almost two years. The average inhabitant of Delhi would live 9.7 years longer were it not for air pollution. The figure is 8.5 years across the Indo-Gangetic plains, where 500 million people live.”

“Cutting air pollution to the WHO standard would add 5.9 years of life expectancy to 1.38 billion Indians, 5.4 years to 164.7 million Bangladeshis and 3.9 years to 220 million Pakistanis.”

“Annually, 349,000 stillbirths and miscarriages in South Asia can be attributed to air pollution, and 116,000 infants die from its effects in their first month.” (X/x)