Peak pollution was high even after showers in Delhi: NGO

The Times of India , Saturday, January 24, 2015
Correspondent : TNN
NEW DELHI: Ahead of the US President Barack Obama's visit to Delhi, Greenpeace India, an environmental NGO tracked air pollution levels at various locations in Delhi which he is likely to visit. Greenpeace campaigners used a portable air quality monitoring device, PDR-1500, bought from US. Greenpeace's reality check of PM2.5 levels on Friday revealed that peak air pollution levels spiked to alarming levels even after the rain on Thursday helped wash out the pollutants and the 24-hour average came down.

"Exposure to fine particulate matter pollution is the largest environmental health risk in the world, upping the risk of lung cancer, stroke, heart disease, chronic respiratory diseases, lower respiratory infections and asthma. PM2.5 is estimated to have been responsible for over three million premature deaths in 2010," Greenpeace's statement on Friday said. It also referred to The International Agency for Research on Cancer which classified particulate matter pollution as carcinogenic to humans in 2013, and designated it as a "leading environmental cause of cancer deaths".

Unreliable data from government agencies has led to individual researchers and advocacy groups using battery-operated portable devices that measure people's personal exposure to air pollution. "Delhi has been breathing extremely poor air this winter with daily PM2.5 averages peaking to 320 micrograms per cubic metres, six times the Indian safety standard and 14 times that of the World Health Organization's. I hope the government recognizes the urgency to act and safeguard the health of citizens," Aishwarya Madineni of Greenpeace India said.

 
SOURCE : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Peak-pollution-was-high-even-after-showers-in-Delhi-NGO/articleshow/45998569.cms
 


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