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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Delhi smog shortening lives, say docs as hospitals fill up

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In the emergency ward of a Delhi hospital, men and women gasp for breath as they wait to be treated for symptoms triggered by the choking blanket of smog that descended on the Indian capital this week.


Doctors at the government-run Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute say patient numbers have more than tripled since pollution levels spiked amid a change in weather conditions and the annual post-harvest burning of crop stubble in surrounding areas.


Shopkeeper Manoj Khati said he initially dismissed his heaving cough but it grew gradually worse and he has now been diagnosed with chronic bronchitis.


“For three days I haven’t stopped coughing, I felt as though I would die,” the 46-year-old said.


Levels of PM2.5 — the fine pollution particles linked to higher rates of chronic bronchitis, lung cancer and heart disease — regularly topped 500 this week, at one point going over 1,000.


Levels between 301 and 500 are classified as “hazardous”, while anything over 500 is beyond the official index.


The World Health Organization’s guidelines say 25 is the maximum level of PM2.5 anyone can safely be exposed to over a 24-hour period.


Emergency ward doctor Mansi Verma said the hospital had seen a huge spike in patients suffering from respiratory problems.


“Beginning this week, we are seeing between 250-300 patients, more than three times the usual,” Verma said.


“Most of them suffer from intense coughing and inflammation of the respiratory tract.”


Despite the rise in emergency cases Arvind Kumar, a respiratory diseases specialist at the private Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi, said many of the worst health effects would not be seen for years to come.


“Whatever toxins levels we are exposed to today, suppose it continued for 10 days, this would have shortened the life of each one of us by several days or several weeks.


“But that effect will be noticed many, many years later, so it’s not an immediate killer. Its potential lethal value is not immediately appreciated, but nonetheless, it’s a lethal killer.”


Delhi is now the world’s most polluted capital according to a World Health Organization survey conducted in 2014, with levels regularly exceeding those in Beijing.


With current levels of pollution, Kumar said, he would not recommend living in the city at all.


“If you worry about your health, then I would say Delhi is not a place to live.” — AFP


Jalees Andrabi


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