# Pollution in Delhi is worse than Beijing / Indians have the world's weakest lungs



## Desmond (Jan 29, 2014)

What do you guys say?



> NEW DELHI — In mid-January, air pollution in Beijing was so bad that the government issued urgent health warnings and closed four major highways, prompting the panicked buying of air filters and donning of face masks. But in New Delhi, where pea-soup smog created what was by some measurements even more dangerous air, there were few signs of alarm in the country’s boisterous news media, or on its effervescent Twittersphere.
> 
> Despite Beijing’s widespread reputation of having some of the most polluted air of any major city in the world, an examination of daily pollution figures collected from both cities suggests that* New Delhi’s air is more laden with dangerous small particles of pollution, more often, than Beijing’s. Lately, a very bad air day in Beijing is about an average one in New Delhi.
> *
> ...



More details : *www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/world/asia/beijings-air-would-be-step-up-for-smoggy-delhi.html?_r=3


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## whitestar_999 (Jan 29, 2014)

in today's times of india paper:
Delhi's air quality not as poor as Beijing's - The Times of India


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## Desmond (Jan 29, 2014)

whitestar_999 said:


> in today's* times of india* paper:
> Delhi's air quality not as poor as Beijing's - *The Times of India*





For some reason I find it hard to believe. Because TOI.


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## amjath (Jan 29, 2014)

Because of pollution, I started suffering from wheezing since last year.


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## whitestar_999 (Jan 29, 2014)

that's like saying it must be true because it is BBC.from the above article:


> Several air pollution experts and environment ministry officials sought clarification from IITM on whether Delhi had poorer air than Beijing. Scientists claim that one of the reasons why there could have been a misunderstanding about Delhi's air quality is because the hourly values are often not representative of the 24 hour average. "What matters is the exposure of well-mixed ambient air on a longer period," said Sunil Peshin from Indian meteorological department.


*btw i don't get why ToI gets so much hate.*i agree they sometimes publish stories with no sense but then which newspaper doesn't.in fact *being a regular reader i can say that ToI is the only paper i can think of which has both praised & criticized modi as well as AAP/Kejriwal which is much more than any other paper i read which either are in 1 camp or another.*


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## Desmond (Jan 29, 2014)

I am ready to look at both sides of the coin for this article, also TOI's article could be genuinely correct. But the image of TOI is such that I have grown to not trust them.

Also this : *www.mediacrooks.com/2014/01/the-shoe-finally-pinches-toi.html?m=1


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## Vyom (Jan 29, 2014)

"India has the world’s highest death rate ..." does it take into account that India is the second most populous country?

The article seems to have written from a person with skewed perspective. After the introduction of CNG only buses, pollution have gotten down as per my experience. :/


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## Desmond (Jan 29, 2014)

But no. of cars have increased as per the article.


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## Anorion (Jan 30, 2014)

yeah I wanted to post this. the smog is pretty bad in mum too. 
this is because of particle suspension in air. construction, digging, etc. these are worse than working in a mine or asbestos plant, the particles settle in lungs permanently, and will require cleaning from inside which is painful. 
time to order gas masks.



Vyom said:


> "India has the world’s highest death rate ..." does it take into account that India is the second most populous country?
> 
> The article seems to have written from a person with skewed perspective. After the introduction of CNG only buses, pollution have gotten down as per my experience. :/



nope. india has the... the highest rate of chronic lung and respiratory disorders, in the world. not to mention asthma. was mentioned in one of the sources of these article, will try to track down.

edit, its here : *apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.A866?lang=en

we are on top of the list when it comes to "Mortality: Chronic respiratory diseases, deaths per 100,000 by country"


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## ico (Jan 30, 2014)

None of the Indian cities are as worse as Beijing.

Except may be Kolkata.


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## freshseasons (Jan 30, 2014)

So does it mean people in India die faster than people in other countries like china.

   So if somehow you are an NRI or that you settle abroad you have just increased your life span .


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## $hadow (Jan 30, 2014)

Cities like Kanpur, Moradabad in U.P. which are known for their manufacturing and import of brass, leather etc have a very dense pollution in the city centers. On some places you can barely see a clear sky.


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## ash63425 (Jan 30, 2014)

I guess whether it is more or less than Beijing but it is harmful for sure. Day by day its getting tougher to breathe in cities like Delhi and NCR.


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## Anorion (Jan 31, 2014)

this is news because people realized delhi has low-visibility white-out smog persisting through mid-day which is what beijing was notorious for.
this is not caused by the small particle PM2.5 pollutants (exhaust, industrial chimneys) but by larger pollutant particles suspended in air (construction), which has fewer comments in these stories. so the alarm is caused by the larger particles, but the focus is on the deadlier smaller particle pollution. deadlier is just relative here, these bigger particles are also dangerous, and cause the chronic breathing problems mentioned in the articles.

anyway, would trust the TOI src which is a govt organisation responsible for tracking pollution SAFAR, more than the NYT source which is a public interest environmental advocacy group About CSE | Centre for Science and Environment


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## Nanducob (Jan 31, 2014)

Add some cigarette to weaken the lungs more


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## icebags (Feb 1, 2014)

thanks to all the smokers and guddi+bike -wallas, we and the next gen indians gradually will consume less oxygen than our ancestors.  govt should make petrol price 200/litre with immediate effect, forcing people to use public transport.


there is a flyover here, i often go walking, and find the air above flyover is thicker than what lies under it, where no car is running.


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