India’s capital New Delhi switched schools to online classes on Monday until further notice as worsening toxic smog surged past 60 times the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended daily maximum.
Various piecemeal government initiatives have failed to measurably address the problem, with the smog blamed for thousands of premature deaths each year and particularly impacting the health of children and the elderly.
Levels of PM2.5 pollutants – dangerous cancer-causing microparticles that enter the bloodstream through the lungs – peaked at 907 micrograms per cubic metre on Monday morning, according to IQAir pollution monitors, with a reading above 15 in a 24-hour period considered unhealthy by the WHO.
Individual monitoring stations noted even higher levels – one recorded PM2.5 pollutants at 980, 65 times the WHO maximum.
“My eyes have been burning for the last few days”, said rickshaw puller Subodh Kumar, 30.
“Pollution or no pollution, I have to be on the road, where else will I go?” he said, pausing from eating breakfast at a roadside stall.
