Take a deep breath. Now let it out. Do you feel relaxed? No? That’s probably because you live in India, and you just inhaled a lung full of smoke and particulate matter, and now, it’s slowly killing you.
India’s pollution situation is bad. India has the most number of cities that are severely affected by air pollution.
The big story of the day is how you can protect yourself from the worst effects of pollution. If you take a few preventive steps, you can reduce pollution damage and stay safe. In a country where 1 lakh children died in 2016 because of pollution, it’s safe to say we definitely need it.
Pollution in India is so bad right now that you’re not safe anywhere - not even in your own house. The Air Quality in Delhi dipped beyond 800 on 1 November. This is more than eight times worse than what’s considered unhealthy to breathe.
The United Nations has even released a list of 25 things that people can do to reduce India’s overall pollution. But first, we’re going to tell you how you can take a few simple steps to protect yourself from pollution right.
A senior pulmonologist, Mrinal Sircar says opting for wet mopping instead of sweeping might keep the dust from floating in the air.
That’s helpful, right? But you know what isn’t very helpful? Apparently, air purifiers!
“There’s very little evidence that air purifiers help. Rooms are not airtight and the toxic air can still come in. I’m skeptical about them helping people stay healthy.”Dr Mrinal Sircar, Pulmonologist
As far as masks go, surgical masks do little to help since the particulate matter is much tinier than the surgical masks’ filter and can easily pass through it. So the answer ISN’T a surgical mask. An N95 filter mask is more likely to help.
But Dr Mrinal Sircar says the safest way to protect yourself from outdoor pollution is by reducing your exposure to the outdoors. Simple, right? Just don’t step out of your house.
The real answer to the pollution problem is in a long-term change. Now that's where the United Nations has a solution for India.
Tactics the list the UN released to help reduce pollution significantly in India by 2030 includes improving vehicle emission standards, industrial emission standards, providing cleaner cooking options and strictly enforcing bans on the burning of household waste. Apart from this, increasing the number of electric vehicles on the roads, better renewable energy generation, controlling dust from constriction sites, and even stopping of stubble burning are all listed as methods to fight pollution.
But THIS will only work if Delhi and its people join hands to fight the problem. It isn’t impossible to fight pollution. The US cut the number of air pollution-related deaths in HALF since 1990. It was around this time that they introduced a bunch of legislative and regulatory reforms to fight pollution. India, too, can do it.
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