New Delhi’s pollution is off the charts — and it’s making residents ill

NEW DELHI — As a thick, ghostly haze shrouded India’s capital city, Juhi Dhaul and her family packed their bags and planned to leave town.

“My kids have been sitting in one room with three air purifiers on since Wednesday,” she said. “They’re virtually under house arrest.”

New Delhi’s air quality consistently ranks among the worst in the world, but the city’s air pollution last week registered 10 times worse than the air in Beijing, which is notorious for its smog. Residents complain of burning eyes and itchy throats, and doctors said chest infections and respiratory illnesses have surged.

Authorities ordered 6,000 schools to close, trucks except those carrying essential supplies have been banned from entering the city for a week, and construction projects have been temporarily stopped.

“Every winter, the weather becomes hostile,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director at the Center for Science and Environment in New Delhi. “Around this time of year, the air is cooler and the wind disappears almost entirely from the city. What you see is combination of local pollution plus episodic pollution, from winds from surrounding regions where farmers burn crop stubble in this season.”

In some parts of Delhi, air-quality readings were 40 times the World Health Organization's recommended safe level. Airfare spiked as supply dipped in low-visibility conditions; trains were delayed and bus companies reported that people were canceling tickets out of fear of highway accidents. 

A recent study linked 2.5 million deaths in India in 2015 to pollution. Worried parents carried coughing children into hospitals around the city.- Read More

New Delhi’s pollution is off the charts — and it’s making residents ill