In ¡®World¡¯s Most Polluted City¡¯ Near Delhi, Toxic Air Is Slowly Poisoning People To Death
Bhiwadi, the industrial hub of Alwar district in Rajasthan, has left behind Delhi in topping the air pollution charts for the year so far. The city had the worst air quality (PM-2.5 at 106.2) of 6,475 cities surveyed for a report published by Swiss air quality technology company IQAir last month.
What does it mean?
For context, the city¡¯s air carries more than 20 times the World Health Organization¡¯s (WHO) recommended maximum level of tiny airborne particles known as PM 2.5, which can penetrate deep into the lungs and cardiovascular system, it found.
Who is at risk?
Bhiwadi is now named as world¡¯s worst city for air pollution but many workers are unaware of risks and shun masks.
¡°It literally keeps me alive,¡± said Indian traffic policeman Surendar Singh (48), showing the implanted cardiac defibrillator device that detects when his heart rhythm goes dangerously awry and delivers a shock to restore it to normal.
¡°It¡¯s the price you pay for working in this madness,¡± he said, gesturing to a clogged intersection in the city.
How bad is it?
The average level of PM-2.5 has been recorded at 106.2 in Bhiwadi in 2021 against 96.4 in Delhi. PM-2.5 is the unit to measure the level of pollution. In the category of cities, Ghaziabad is at number two after Bhiwadi, where the pollution level is 102.
Doctors say long-term exposure to polluted air can cause health problems from asthma and lung cancer to reduced blood oxygen levels that can cause irregular heartbeats that manifest in chest pain, tightness, or palpitations.
That could explain why Singh fell ill. He always ate nutritious food and never smoked or drank alcohol. But he believes 27 years of breathing palls of exhaust fumes, road dust and toxic industrial air have taken a toll ¨C from wheezing and hacking coughs to chest pain in 2018.?
Singh was moved to a largely indoor role last year, to the envy of his colleagues who return home with red eyes, headaches and sooty grey uniforms after 12-hour shifts on the streets.
Many still unaware
Dozens of outdoor workers ¨C from sweepers, street vendors and construction labourers to security guards and tuk-tuk drivers ¨C said they knew nothing of the poor-quality air they were breathing and questioned its impacts on health.
Many were confident they were immune to any diseases that could come with working in such noxious settings.
¡°What¡¯s the worst that could happen? I could die? If I don¡¯t work here, I will face the same outcome sooner,¡± said Rohit Yadav as he picked up a container of gravel from a roadside to dump into a truck.
¡°Pollution is not a concern for poor people. Filling our stomachs is.¡±
"A slow poison"
Hundreds of brick kilns billow thick smoke, road builders burn tar, farmers thresh grain and kick up clouds of chaff, residents set garbage piles on fire and rumbling trucks leave a haze of dust in their wake. Such a cocktail of pollutants is likely to reduce the life expectancy of about 40% of Indians by more than nine years, according to a report published by US research group the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago.
¡°It is a slow poison that corrodes your body over years,¡± said Sunil Dahiya, analyst at the Delhi-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
Ignorance about those risks among Bhiwadi¡¯s workers ¨C many of whom choose not to wear masks ¨C reflects the government¡¯s failure to raise awareness as pledged in the National Clean Air Programme published in 2019, Dahiya said.
Labour rights activists say it can have significant effects on workers¡¯ cognitive and physical performance, lowering their productivity, and resulting in additional medical expenses. For outdoor workers whose jobs leave them more exposed, it becomes a lose-lose situation.?????
