Breathing the air in New Delhi is like smoking 50 cigarettes a day

Fourteen of the world's fifteen most polluted cities are in India these days.

One of the most polluted cities in the world is New Delhi. As you can read from the article below, breathing the air daily in New Delphi is like smoking 50 cigarettes a day. The pollution seems to be from cars, industry and crop burning.

Access the article here:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/weather/2019/11/05/new-delhi-smog-toxic-pollution-can-seen-space/4166838002/

Vocabulary words from the article:

toxic – causing harm

to choke someone – to stop someone from breathing

haze – a cloud of something

to suffocate someone – to stop a person from breathing

inflammation – when something on your body swells or becomes larger

blanketed - covered

smog – a type of thick air pollution

fumes – gas that smells

emissions – something that comes from something else

stubble – the remains of crops (grown food) that are burned

foul – bad, terrible

congestion – when something is clogged up, when something isn’t loose

fatigue – when someone is extremely tired

ventilator – a machine that helps a person to breathe

a gas chamber – a room that can fill up with gas (an old way to kill people)

crop burning – a crop is a type of fruit or vegetable that has been grown

to be distraught – to feel depressed and hopeless

a street vendor – someone who sells something on the street

filthy – very dirty, not clean

a cut and paste from the USA Today article:



New Delhi's toxic, polluted air chokes city's 20 million people, and the haze can be seen from space

Toxic air is choking New Delhi, closing schools and colleges, forcing cars off the road and prohibiting planes from landing at the airport.

The pollution is so bad that it can be seen from space.

The 20 million residents of New Delhi, one of the world’s most polluted cities, have suffered for weeks under a toxic haze that's up to 10 times worse than the upper limits of what's considered healthy.

"I have a headache every day I wake up. It's suffocating to breathe sometimes. And inflammation in the nostrils and all. And eyes also. Like it kind of burns," Ankusha Kushi, a student, told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

A public health emergency has remained in place in the city for the past five days as the air pollution is at its highest level in more than three years.

Every winter, the city is blanketed by a poisonous smog of car fumes, industrial emissions and smoke from stubble burning at farms in neighboring states.

Experts said breathing the air in New Delhi is equal to smoking 50 cigarettes a day.

Dr. Salil Sharma, a throat specialist, said 95% of the patients he has treated over the past 10 days are sick because of the foul air.

“I have patients from all age groups, and most of them are nonsmokers who complain of breathlessness, chest congestion, fatigue and weakness,” Sharma said. “In some cases, I had to put some patients on a ventilator because they couldn’t breathe.

More than 30 flights were rerouted Sunday because the pilots could not see to land, the Weather Channel reported. Private cars can be on the road only on alternate days.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said last week that the city had been "turned into a gas chamber due to smoke from crop burning," CNN reported. 

Fireworks set off during Diwali, the Hindu festival of light, add even more smoke to the air, and calmer winter winds do not clear it very well.

Some people distraught over the pollution consider leaving the city for good.

Devendra Verma, a street vendor, did not go to work for three days last week. He said he was too weak to leave his house as filthy air made him feel fatigued.

“The city is not livable anymore,” he said. “Sometimes I think I should pack my bags and leave Delhi for once and all.”

According to the United Nations, 14 of the world's 15 most polluted cities are in India.