The dipping air quality in Delhi-NCR has made life difficult, and it’s not abating anytime soon
The consistently deteriorating ambient air quality in the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) has left most people — especially the very young, the elderly and those suffering from bronchial or respiratory disorders, such as asthma — literally breathless. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) states that an Air Quality Index (AQI) in the “very poor” category may cause respiratory ailments in people on prolonged exposure, while an AQI in the “poor” zone may lead to breathing discomfort to most people. The problem of the actual presence of particulate matter in the air is worsened by the discomfort of using masks — though it does help filter the air at one level — that has been made mandatory by legal sanction because of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The problem is not about wearing of the masks per se but about the gloomy and claustrophobic feeling it triggers in one, especially in the drab and overcast conditions much like the typical London weather. The very real melancholic emotion activated by what is called in medical parlance the Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), and commonly known as “winter blues”, is a type of depression that’s related to changes in seasons — SAD begins and ends at about the same time every year. If you’re like most people with SAD, your symptoms start in the fall and continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody.
Apart from the prevalence of these medical conditions, the region is experiencing a host of simple irritants as temperature fluctuations and poor visibility. As children in classes above standard V have already resumed going to school, they are naturally irked by the foggy, smoggy or hazy mornings and the shivers of a frigid morning giving way to beads of perspiration by early afternoon. Besides, the air quality in the past few days has been recorded in the “very poor” category across Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida, Gurgaon and Faridabad. Pollutants PM2.5 and PM10 also remained in the air of the five immediate neighbours of Delhi, according to the CPCB. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the AQI has dipped on account of calm winds. Slower wind speed and low ventilation conditions are unfavourable for the effective dispersal of pollutants. In more bad news, the air quality is likely to remain in “very poor” for the next few days.