“But, dude, I’m a non-smoker!” – If that’s what crossed your mind and you brushed aside the very question surmising that it’s not relevant for you to pay heed, then, allow me to burst your bubble because it doesn’t matter whether you smoke or not, you are anyway going to inhale toxins and chemicals provided you stay in Delhi and courtesy to the air that you’re breathing which is filled with high levels of PM pollutants.
And a shout-out to all the chain-smokers – No hard feelings but what has been wrong with you, people, that you’re squandering your hard-earned bucks in purchasing those fags when Delhi air is doing the work for you, that too for free, just on the cost of your health.
Do you know that you’re passively smoking around 20 cigarettes per day in Delhi? All you have to do is just breath. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a recent report revealed that Delhi is the most polluted metro city in the world. With PM2.5 concentrations being 143, you’re having a puff almost every hour while being either indoors or outdoors.
Emissions of motor vehicles, dust from construction sites, smoke from garbage fires, burning crops, fire on agricultural lands; all these factors have conspicuously contributed towards the drastic upsurge of bad air quality.
With 1.5 million people dying every year in India, we have the highest mortality rate caused due to chronic respiratory ailments. Poor air quality has irrevocably damaged the lungs of 2.2 million people living in Delhi.
If these alarming data do not concern or compel you to take any appropriate action against this grave menace, then I wonder, what under the sun would! Otherwise, not far would be that day, when Delhi would be introduced as the “Gas Chamber City” across the world, instead of the capital of India.
Photo Credits : Steve P
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