With calm winds, seasonal crop burns, and the usual vehicle and industrial emissions, an extremely thick, toxic fog of pollution has settled on Delhi, choking and sickening residents.
Pollution measurements and indexes have exceeded charted ranges, blowing past the highest categorized levels dubbed “severe” and hazardous to health. In some areas of the gigantic metropolitan area, measurements of certain pollutants were around 30 times the levels considered safe by the World Health Organization. Local journalists reported that the smog is causing throat irritation, wheezing, nausea, vomiting, and extreme fatigue.
Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, took to Twitter to call the city a “gas chamber.”
In a series of Facebook videos, the president of the Indian Medical Association, Dr. K.K. Aggarwal, called the pollution a “public health emergency.” He warned residents to rest “completely,” meaning no walking or going outside, citing concerns for asthma attacks, lung and heart damage, and sudden cardiac arrest. “The pollution levels are very, very, very toxic to the lungs and to the heart,” he emphasized.
