1/25/14, "Beijing’s Bad Air Would Be Step Up for Smoggy Delhi," NY Times, Gardiner Harris, New Delhi
"In mid-January, air pollution in Beijing was so bad that the government issued urgent health warnings and closed four major highways, prompting the panicked buying of air filters and donning of face masks. But in New Delhi, where pea-soup smog created what was by some measurements even more dangerous air, there were few signs of alarm in the country’s boisterous news media, or on its effervescent Twittersphere.
Despite
Beijing’s widespread reputation of having some of the most polluted air
of any major city in the world, an examination of daily pollution
figures collected from both cities suggests that New Delhi’s air is more
laden with dangerous small particles of pollution, more often, than
Beijing’s. Lately, a very bad air day in Beijing is about an average one
in New Delhi.
The United States Embassy in Beijing sent out warnings in mid-January, when a measure of harmful fine particulate matter known as PM2.5 went above 500,
in the upper reaches of the measurement scale, for the first time this
year. This refers to particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in
diameter, which is believed to pose the greatest health risk because it
penetrates deeply into lungs.
But
for the first three weeks of this year, New Delhi’s average daily peak
reading of fine particulate matter from Punjabi Bagh, a monitor whose
readings are often below those of other city and independent monitors,
was 473, more than twice as high as the average of 227 in Beijing. By
the time pollution breached 500 in Beijing for the first time on the
night of Jan. 15, Delhi had already had eight such days. Indeed, only
once in three weeks did New Delhi’s daily peak value of fine particles
fall below 300, a level more than 12 times the exposure limit
recommended by the World Health Organization.
“It’s
always puzzled me that the focus is always on China and not India,”
said Dr. Angel Hsu, director of the environmental performance
measurement program at the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy.
“China has realized that it can’t hide behind its usual opacity,
whereas India gets no pressure to release better data. So there simply
isn’t good public data on India like there is for China.”
Experts have long known that India’s air is among the worst in the world. A recent analysis by Yale researchers
found that seven of the 10 countries with the worst air pollution
exposures are in South Asia. And evidence is mounting that Indians pay a
higher price for air pollution than almost anyone.
A recent study
showed that Indians have the world’s weakest lungs, with far less
capacity than Chinese lungs. Researchers are beginning to suspect that
India’s unusual mix of polluted air, poor sanitation and contaminated
water may make the country among the most dangerous in the world for
lungs.
India has the world’s highest death rate because of chronic respiratory diseases, and it has more deaths from asthma
than any other nation, according to the World Health Organization. A
recent study found that half of all visits to doctors in India are for
respiratory problems, according to Sundeep Salvi, director of the Chest
Research Foundation in Pune.
Clean
Air Asia, an advocacy group, found that another common measure of
pollution known as PM10, for particulate matter less than 10 micrometers
in diameter, averaged 117 in Beijing in a six-month period in 2011. In
New Delhi, the Center for Science and Environment used government data
and found that an average measure of PM10 in 2011 was 281, nearly
two-and-a-half times higher.
Perhaps
most worrisome, Delhi’s peak daily fine particle pollution levels are
44 percent higher this year than they were last year, when they averaged
328 over the first three weeks of the year. Fine particle pollution has
been strongly linked with premature death, heart attacks, strokes and heart failure. In October, the World Health Organization declared that it caused lung cancer.
The United States Embassy in Beijing posts on Twitter
the readings of its air monitor, helping to spur awareness of the
problem. The readings have more than 35,000 followers. The United States
does not release similar readings from its New Delhi Embassy, saying
the Indian government releases its own figures.
In
China, concerns about air quality have transfixed many urban residents,
and some government officials say curbing the pollution is a priority.
But in India, Delhi’s newly elected regional government did not mention air pollution among its 18 priorities, and India’s environment minister quit in December
amid widespread criticism that she was delaying crucial industrial
projects. Her replacement, the government’s petroleum minister, almost
immediately approved several projects that could add considerably to
pollution. India and China strenuously resisted pollution limits in global climate talks in Warsaw in November.
Frank
Hammes, chief executive of IQAir, a Swiss-based maker of air filters,
said his company’s sales were hundreds of times higher in China than in
India.
“In
China, people are extremely concerned about the air, especially around
small children,” Mr. Hammes said. “Why there’s not the same concern in
India is puzzling.”
In
multiple interviews, Delhiites expressed a mixture of unawareness and
despair about the city’s pollution levels. “I don’t think pollution is a
major concern for Delhi,” said Akanksha Singh, a 20-year-old
engineering student who lives on Delhi’s outskirts in Ghaziabad, adding
that he felt that Delhi’s pollution problems were not nearly as bad as
those of surrounding towns.
In
1998, India’s Supreme Court ordered that Delhi’s taxis, three-wheelers
and buses be converted to compressed natural gas, but the resulting
improvements in air quality were short-lived as cars flooded the roads.
In the 1970s, Delhi had about 800,000 vehicles; now it has 7.5 million,
with 1,400 more added daily.
“Now
the air is far worse than it ever was,” said Anumita Roy Chowdhury,
executive director of the Center for Science and Environment.
Indians’
relatively poor lung function has long been recognized, but researchers
assumed for years that the difference was genetic.
Then a 2010 study
found that the children of Indian immigrants who were born and raised
in the United States had far better lung function than those born and
raised in India.
“It’s
not genetics; it’s mostly the environment,” said Dr. MyLinh Duong, an
assistant professor of respirology at McMaster University in Hamilton,
Ontario.
In a study
published in October, Dr. Duong compared lung tests taken in 38,517
healthy nonsmokers from 17 countries who were matched by height, age and
sex. Indians’ lung function was by far the lowest among those tested.
All of this has led some wealthy Indians to consider leaving. Annat
Jain, a private equity investor who returned to India in 2001 after
spending 12 years in the United States, said his father died last year
of heart failure worsened by breathing problems. Now his 4-year-old
daughter must be given twice-daily breathing treatments.
“But
whenever we leave the country, everyone goes back to breathing
normally,” he said. “It’s something my wife and I talk about
constantly.”" image above caption, "Sami Siva for The New York Times"
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Comment: Too bad UN climate chief Pachauri doesn't address "unsustainable" atmosphere in his own country instead of jet setting around the world complaining about American life which is none of his business.
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