{"id":2349,"date":"2015-03-05T11:09:43","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T11:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/?p=2349"},"modified":"2021-12-01T12:37:34","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T12:37:34","slug":"delhis-air-pollution-is-worse-than-beijings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/press\/2349\/delhis-air-pollution-is-worse-than-beijings\/","title":{"rendered":"Delhi\u2019s air pollution is worse than Beijing\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Greenpeace collated data shows that Delhi has no action plan to protect its citizens from heavy pollution episodes.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

New Delhi<\/strong>, March 5, 2015:<\/strong>New Delhi is breathing the most polluted air in the world, according to the World Health Organisation report in 2014. The WHO found that 13 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world are in India, with New Delhi\u2019s air being the world\u2019s worst. While Beijing\u2019s air quality has made headlines worldwide, a range of studies, backed by the government\u2019s own data, shows that New Delhi\u2019s air is often worse than that of Beijing. The examination of pollution figures collected and based on bad and good air quality days from Beijing and Delhi suggests that on an average, Delhi\u2019s air is more laden with dangerous PM2.5 (fine particulate matter than can penetrate deep into the lungs) than Beijing\u2019s. An average day in New Delhi would be considered a very bad-air day in Beijing. The exponential rise in the air pollution levels has highlighted the need for a robust action plan to tackle bad-air quality days and spread awareness of the health risks posed by air pollution.<\/p>\n

Greenpeace Campaigner Aishwarya Madineni observes that \u201cDelhi\u2019s PM2.5 levels are several times higher than those of Beijing according to the Pollution Control Board\u2019s data submitted to the World Health Organisation. Despite all the statistics, our Environment ministry continues to be in denial of the fact that we are taking worse care of our citizens than Beijing. Beijing, unlike Delhi, has a five-year action plan in place to protect its citizens from harmful air. It is appalling to see the union minister for environment dismiss any need for precautionary measures such as masks or school closures on heavy pollution days. The government needs to show that it cares for its citizens – children, the sick and elderly are at most risk from Delhi\u2019s toxic air. Action on air pollution is something that NGOs, including Greenpeace, have been demanding for a while. A clean and healthy environment is in our national interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talking further on the emission standards for industries, Madineni said \u201cthere should be stringent targets for industrial emissions. We need an action plan similar to that of Beijing, it \u00a0should include an emergency alert system that issues health advisories to public on heavy pollution days along with instructions for industries to cut down emissions. We have no emission standards for Coal-fired power plants in India, a sector responsible for emitting 7500 tons of PM2.5 into the city[i]<\/a>. Delhi had several bad-air days in 2014 for which no health advisories were issued.<\/p>\n

A recent study published in the Economic and Political Weekly has clearly indicated that 660 million people across India are exposed to unhealthy levels of PM2.5 resulting in reduced life expectancy by 3.2 years on an average. PM2.5 is estimated to have been responsible for over three million premature deaths in 2010[ii]<\/a>. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classified particulate matter pollution as carcinogenic to humans in 2013, and designated it as a \u201cleading environmental cause of cancer deaths\u201d[iii]<\/a>. India is one of the countries with highest population exposure to PM2.5, and consequently Indians face one of the highest health risks from PM2.5.<\/p>\n

Elaborating on the threat posed by PM2.5, Aishwarya Madineni said that In the last couple of months, several studies including the one from the Jawaharlal Nehru University have thrown light on the hazardous levels of PM2.5 in Delhi possibly leading to as many as 47,800 pre-mature deaths per one million population. The study has further acknowledged that Delhi\u2019s air is full of cancer-causing particles. Despite the capital\u2019s serious air pollution problem, there was hardly any emphasis on it in the union budget. The level of funding given to the pollution control board is simply not enough to address a problem of this scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Delhi also does not have Health Advisories or Action Plans in place. On the contrary, Beijing has a Four-level alarm system to tackle heavy pollution episodes. The alarm system issues health warnings along with addressing the emissions from different sources of pollution such as cars and coal-fired power plants.<\/p>\n

DETAILS ON BEIJING\u2019S FOUR-LEVEL ALARM SYSTEM<\/strong>[iv]<\/strong><\/a> \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

TRIGGERS BASED ON PM2.5 LEVELS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

BLUE<\/strong>: One day of PM2.5 over150 ug\/m3<\/p>\n

YELLOW<\/strong>: Three days of pollution over 150 ug\/m3 or one day of pollution over 250 ug\/m3<\/p>\n

ORANGE<\/strong>: Three days of pollution alternating between over 150 ug\/m3 and over 250 ug\/m3<\/p>\n

RED<\/strong>:\u00a0Three days of pollution over 250 ug\/m3<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
ACTIONS<\/strong><\/td>\nBLUE LEVEL<\/strong><\/td>\nYELLOW LEVEL<\/strong><\/td>\nORANGE LEVEL<\/strong><\/td>\nRED LEVEL<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\nChildren, elderly and people with respiratory or cardiovascular conditions warned.<\/td>\nVulnerable groups told to stay inside.<\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n

Factory close.<\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n

Schoolsand kindergartens are closed.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Increase dust prevention at construction sites<\/td>\nPower plants and factories cut emissions<\/td>\nSchools stop exercise classes<\/td>\nPower plants cut emissions further.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Reduce public vehicles use.<\/td>\n<\/td>\nEveryone told to avoid exercise outside and wear masks.<\/td>\nCar use regulated based on licence plate number (odd\/even number system).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\nExcavation and demolition work at construction sites stopped.<\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n

<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Please find Greenpeace Petition link to :-\u00a0 <\/strong>#ToxiCity<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n \t\t\t

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Donate today or consider remembering Greenpeace in your Will.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t \n Get Involved\n <\/a>\n \t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greenpeace collated data shows that Delhi has no action plan to protect its citizens from heavy pollution episodes. New Delhi, March 5, 2015:New Delhi is breathing the most polluted air…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":1268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,26],"tags":[29],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-2349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","category-health-living","tag-health","p4-page-type-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2349"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12344,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2349\/revisions\/12344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2349"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=2349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}